Nineteen-year-old Heba Allejji will create history at the Rio 2016 Olympics by becoming the first ever Syrian player to play in an Olympics Table Tennis event. The world number 667 secured her golden ticket to Rio, courtesy of the Tripartite place, which only
National Olympic Committees who have an average of less than eight athletes at the last two Olympic Games can apply for. Despite the the problems in her country, the 19-year-old ALLEJII is no stranger to international competition, having competed at the 2016 Asia Olympic Qualification Tournament, the 2016 ITTF World Tour Qatar Open and the 2015 Asian Junior Championships.
This story first appeared in the blog, The Sport Intern. The editor is Karl-Heinz Huba of Lorsch, Germany. He can be reached at ISMG@aol.com. The article is reprinted here with permission of Huba.