6/29/08

BAGHDAD — Iraqis love sports. Anyone who doubts it should consider the rat-a-tat of automatic weapons fired after every Iraqi soccer victory. Yet after five years of war, Iraq’s chances of fielding a competitive Olympic team are vanishingly small.

laying fields, pools and gyms are in disrepair. Athletes are targets for assassination. Only one, a weight lifter, qualified for the Beijing Olympics, the second Summer Games since the American invasion in 2003.

War and hardship, though, have not destroyed all of Iraq’s dreams for international competition. The country, which has been in three wars in two decades, has a robust Paralympic team.