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WHISTLER — From a few yards away near the slalom finish line, Marjan Kalhor looks like just another Olympic skier. She has the powerful quadriceps and hamstrings, the strong shoulders, the skin-tight uniform.
Get closer and you'll see what makes her different, how she made history at the Vancouver Olympics this week. Inside her helmet is a purple veil, a mandatory head garment for Islamic women in Iran. On her license-plate sized ID badge is a mug shot of her in a burka covering everything but her face.
Kalhor, 21, is the first woman from Iran to compete in the Winter Olympics. She finished last in the slalom Friday, as you'd expect from someone who once trained by skiing down grass fields. She also finished last in the giant slalom Thursday.
On Friday, she was 35.71 seconds behind gold medalist Maria Riesch of Germany. However, Kalhor completed all four of her runs, something dozens of skiers didn't do, including world champion Lindsey Vonn. And, for two days, Kalhor shared the same mountain with the likes of the big stars, Vonn, Riesch and Marlies Schild.
"The only thing I want to get from the Olympics is to compete against the best skiers in the world and get more experience," she said in passable English.
Iranian women have competed in the Olympics before, just not the Winter Games. Lita Fariman competed in shooting in the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta. Since then, Iranian women have competed in rowing, archery and taekwondo. >>>