Parfait Hakizimana (born 1988) is a Burundian parataekwondo practitioner who currently resides in Rwanda. He will represent the Refugee Paralympic Team at the 2020 Summer Paralympics^[1] in the under 61 kg category.^[2]

Life

Hakizimana was born in Burundi and lived in a settlement camp as a child. He was shot in the arm when he was eight in an attack that also killed his mother. His father took him to a hospital where with basic care he recovered over two years.^[3] He began learning taekwondo when he was sixteen. Hakizimana credits the sport with improving his outlook. He set up a martial arts club. When he was twenty his father died on a motorbike and he decided to leave the tribal conflict in Burundi.^[3]

He emigrated to Rwanda and lives in the Mahama Refugee Camp in Rwanda. He went on to again teach his martial art skills in the camp.^[4]

He began to compete in 2017 and he had some success.^[5] Zura Mushambokazi became his coach. She is a national Taekwondo coach.^[6] In 2021 he was able to travel to Kigali where he trained at the Amahoro Stadium.^[3]

In June 2021, Hakizimana was chosen with four men and a woman to represent refugees at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo. The six will be led by the Chef de Mission Ileana Rodriguez who was previously a parathlete swimmer for the US in 2012.^[1] The other five are Alia Issa and Ibrahim Al Hussein who are both from Syria and are based in Athens, the American-based Afghan refugee swimmer Abbas Karimi, the German-based Syrian refugee canoeist Anas Al Khalifa, and American based Iranian refugee discus thrower Shahrad Nasajpour.^[1] He hoped to win a medal at the paralympics and to return to the refugee camp where he has a young daughter.^[5] At the Games, Hakizimana withdrew from the repechage section due to an injury.^[7]

References