Azerbaijan's two-time Paralympic champion Ilham Zakiyev spent five days in a coma before he ever won a medal.
Azerbaijan's two-time Paralympic champion Ilham Zakiyev spent five days in a coma before he ever won a medal.
In 1999, while serving in the military, Zakiyev was hit by an enemy sniper's bullet. Doctors did not expect him to survive. He did, but he lost his eyesight completely, and returned home as a disabled veteran of the Karabakh war.
He went back to training in November 2002. Two years later he became Azerbaijan's first Paralympic judo champion, in Athens, and defended the title in Beijing in 2008. He also won three world titles and ten European titles.
"Even though I lost my eyesight, I never lost my faith in victory and in life," he said, telling his story on AZERTAC's 'His Story' project.
#Azerbaijan