"When I was born
the doctor wanted to kill me!", Ali Jawad.
Jawad,
is a paralympic gold medalist and world record breaking powerlifter
with Crohn's disease. He has had to overcome many challenges in
life. His motto: "Why be the best when you can be the greatest?".
Ali's competition personal best is 195kg but in the gym he has
bench pressed over 200kg.
Ali
Jawad, born as a double above the knee amputee, is a full time
athlete, currently competing at 54kg in the qualifying rounds
(final round end of April 2020) to participate in the Tokyo 2020
Paralympics.
Although, Ali is one of the highest performing powerlifters in the
world he can be taken down by Crohn's disease at any time. Ali took
up powerlifting at the age of 16. He competed in the 2012 Summer
Paralympics in London, finishing fourth. The following year he took
gold at the Asian Open Championships making a world record lift of
185.5 kg. He gained a world title at the 2014 World Championships
in Dubai, won the European title and gold at the 2015 Americas Open
Championships and at the 2016 Rio Games, Ali won silver and his
first ever Paralympic medal for lifting 190kg. More recently he
claimed silver at the Tokyo 2019 World Para Powerlifting World Cup
at the Tokyo 2020 test event.
He is
famous across social media for his celebratory competition dances,
some of which have "gone viral". Revealed in this interview, a new
dance is planned for Tokyo 2020.
Despite
the pressure of living with Crohn's disease, performing as an elite
athlete with high levels of pain and challenges to control that
discomfort, Ali is an anti- doping advocate and educator sitting on
the UK Athletes Anti Doping Commission Board. He is one of the
highest profile commentators in the athlete movement to ban doping.
This interview includes Ali's comments relating to the World Anti
Doping Agency (WADA) ruling on 9 December 2019 which bans Russia
from competing at Tokyo 2020. ideaXme was the first organisation to
catch Ali for his reaction to ruling.
WADA
ruling: On 9 December, the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Executive
Committee (ExCo) endorsed the recommendation made by the
independent Compliance Review Committee (CRC) that the Russian
Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) be declared non-compliant with the
World Anti-Doping Code (Code) for a period of four years. Meeting
in Lausanne, Switzerland, the 12-member ExCo supported the CRC’s
recommendation, which includes a series of strong consequences and
conditions of reinstatement in accordance with the International
Standard for Code Compliance by Signatories (ISCCS).
The
Chair of the CRC, Jonathan Taylor QC, took ExCo members through the
CRC’s recommendation, which had been provided to ExCo members on 25
November together with the report of WADA Intelligence and
Investigations (I&I) and that of the independent forensic
experts from Lausanne University’s Institute of Forensic Science.
“For too long, Russian doping has detracted from clean sport. The
blatant breach by the Russian authorities of RUSADA’s reinstatement
conditions, approved by the ExCo in September 2018, demanded a
robust response. That is exactly what has been delivered today.
Russia was afforded every opportunity to get its house in order and
re-join the global anti-doping community for the good of its
athletes and of the integrity of sport, but it chose instead to
continue in its stance of deception and denial. As a result, the
WADA ExCo has responded in the strongest possible terms, while
protecting the rights of Russian athletes that can prove that they
were not involved and did not benefit from these fraudulent acts".
WADA
Since
the interview, WADA received the resignation of Victoria Aggar, a
highly respected member of its own Athlete Committee, who said she
was standing down after WADA broke its promises and failed to
protect clean athletes.
Demand
for The Paralympics 2020: When it comes to tickets, next year’s
Tokyo Paralympics will be just like the Olympics. International
Paralympic President Andrew Parsons announced on Tuesday this week
that there were 3.1 million tickets requested earlier this year in
the first lottery phase. This exceeds the 2.3 million available.
About 600,000 tickets were awarded in the first lottery, and
another lottery is set for early next year.
Follow
ideaXme's Tokyo 2020 playlist in the lead up to both the Olympics
and Paralympics 2020. This interview is the first of many
interviews with the top athletes who are set to take part.
Credits:
Filming by Alan Johnson and Parth Kakkar Metfilm. From 16 December
2019, interview transcript: www.radioideaxme.com.
This
interview is dedicated to Michael Seres, founder of 11Health and
ideaXme health ambassador who was supposed to interview Ali but is
undergoing STEM cell treatment and chemotherapy for Crohn's
disease. Get well soon Michael! ideaXme is a global podcast,
creator series and mentor programme. Mission: Move the human story
forward!™ ideaXme Ltd.