Abbas Karimi, a refugee swimmer from Afghanistan, overcame the odds to compete at the Tokyo Paralympics on Friday, but his thoughts remained with the people in the country of his birth during this tumultuous time.Karimi, a 24-year-old competing as a member of the Refugee Paralympic Team, finished eighth in the men's 50-meter butterfly S5 class, after he fled Afghanistan at age 16 to escape conflict and work toward his Paralympic goal."It means everything to compete here. For the past nine years, I gave up everything to make it at this level and here I am, at the Paralympic Games," Karimi, w…READ FULL ARTICLE
