U.S.A. / SPORTS
October 3, 2016
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7
Nadim brings passionate
personality to Portland
By Jody Lim
The Asian Reporter
he Portland Thorns concluded a historic 2016
season in the National Women’s Soccer League
(NWSL) in early October. The Thorns won the
NWSL Shield, which is awarded to the club with the best
regular-season record; averaged nearly 17,000 fans per
game at home matches, which is the highest attendance of
any women’s professional soccer team in the world;
finished with the best regular-season home record (8-1-1)
in the league; strung together a 12-game unbeaten streak,
which is the second-longest streak without a loss in the
history of the NWSL; and hosted a home playoff match for
the first time in club history.
Unfortunately, a hard-fought semifinal playoff loss to
the Western New York Flash at Providence Park brought
the season to an end. With the Flash and Thorns tied with
two goals apiece after 90 minutes, the match headed into
extra time. Western New York managed to find the net
two more times while the Thorns were only able to put
away one more goal. A crowd of 20,086 soccer-crazy fans —
a new NWSL attendance record for a playoff game —
cheered as the teams competed in a physical game that
was also nationally televised.
One of the contributors to Portland’s success this year is
Afghanistan-born Nadia Nadim, who joined the Thorns in
January in a trade with Sky Blue FC, the club she played
for during the 2014 and 2015 NWSL seasons. Nadim’s
road to Portland has been a long one.
Fans of the Thorns feel as well as see Nadim’s love of the
game of soccer at every match. In addition to describing
Nadim as a “super-passionate player,” teammate
Meleana “Mana” Shim said she’s a fierce competitor,
someone who is “constantly watching and studying the
game,” pushing herself and those around her to become
better. Nadia has a great attitude as well as a vibrant and
intense personality, Shim said, and also mentioned that
she very much enjoys battling against Nadim during the
team’s training sessions.
Nadim, 28, was born in Herat, Afghanistan on January
2, 1988. She was raised in Kabul, Afghanistan until she
was 12 years old. She and her family had a typical life in
Kabul until the war started. Her mother, Hamida, was a
school principal, and her father, Rabani, was a general in
the Afghan military. Nadim and her sisters — Giti, Diana,
Muskan, and Mujda — attended school, spent time
together, and went about daily life.
But things changed in 2000, when Nadim’s father
disappeared. Much later, they were told he had been
executed by members of the Taliban.
About a month after Rabani’s disappearance, Hamida
fled to Pakistan with her daughters. From Pakistan, the
family was smuggled away in a truck. Their original
destination was London, where extended family lived, but
they ended up in Denmark, in Randers, a small city in the
north.
After spending about a day in Randers, Nadia and her
family ended up at Sandholm, an accommodation center
for asylum seekers in Copenhagen. There, her new life
began amid days filled with language lessons and pickup
soccer games. Later, her family finally found a home of
their own. In the summer of 2008. Nadia acquired her
Danish citizenship.
Eventually, Nadia committed to a local soccer club,
where she began learning the game beyond the many
hours she’d spent running around playing pickup ball. By
2005, she was playing professionally — first with B52
Aalborg then seven seasons with IK Skovbakken
(2006-2012). She joined Fortuna Hjørring in 2012 and
helped the club win a league title in 2014.
In the latter part of the 2014 NWSL season, Fortuna
Hjørring loaned Nadim to Sky Blue FC. Immediately upon
arriving in New Jersey, Nadim scored seven goals in six
games. She stayed on the east coast during the 2015
season as well, tallying six goals and an assist in 18
matches for Sky Blue. Nadim credits Fortuna Hjørring
teammate Tiffany Weimer with providing encouragement
to her in 2012 to look for an opportunity in the NWSL to
challenge herself. (Weimer played the 2013 season with
the Thorns.) In January of this year, Portland announced
the signing of Nadim.
Representing her new country since 2009, Nadim has
earned 58 caps (international appearances) with the
Denmark Women’s National Team. In September, she
was called up to play two matches as part of the qualifying
group stage of the UEFA Women’s EURO competition.
Denmark won both matches, defeating Moldova 5-0 and
Sweden 2-0; Nadim contributed to the wins, scoring three
Nobel laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi receives
humanitarian award
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Myanmar (also known as
Burma) leader Aung San Suu Kyi (ahng sahn soo chee)
has been honored as the 2016 humanitarian of the year by
students and faculty at the Harvard Foundation.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate gained international
prominence as the General Secretary of the newly formed
National League for Democracy in Myanmar in 1990. She
became one of the world’s most well-known political
prisoners during her 15 years of house arrest for
participating in anti-government protests. Her country
later supported her, and she was appointed to the newly
created position of state counsellor, which is similar to
prime minister.
The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize Committee praised her for
her “non-violent struggle for democracy and human
rights.”
She received the foundation’s Peter J. Gomes Humani-
tarian Award during a ceremony in mid-September.
q
Influential San Francisco
activist Rose Pak dies at 68
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An influential community
activist who turned San Francisco’s Asian-American
population into a political power in the city has died.
A friend of Rose Pak said she died of natural causes in
her home. She was 68 years old.
A former reporter who covered Chinatown for The San
Francisco Chronicle, Pak eventually became an advocate
as she became immersed in issues concerning the neigh-
borhood.
As the longtime consultant to the Chinese Chamber of
Commerce, she helped raise money for her preferred
politicians, backed projects benefitting Chinatown’s
residents, and helped make the neighborhood a strong
player in the city’s political world. In 2011, she started a
campaign that led to Ed Lee becoming the city’s first
Chinese-American mayor.
Lee called her death “a great loss to the city.”
q
Study estimates 100,000
deaths from Indonesia haze
Continued from page 5
The Indonesian Medical
Association’s
West
Kalimantan chapter said
Indonesia faces an overall
decline in the health of
future generations with
social and economic conse-
quences if the situation is
not tackled.
“We are the doctors who
TALKING STORY IN
ASIAN AMERICA
n Polo
Polo’s “Talking Story”
column will return soon.
care for the vulnerable
groups exposed to toxic
smoke,” said Nursyam
Ibrahim, deputy head of
the West Kalimantan
chapter of the association.
“And we know how awful it
is to see the disease
symptoms experienced by
babies and children in our
care.”
Howard Frumpkin, dean
of the School of Public
Health at the University of
Washington, said it is
possible
the
health
consequences are greater
than indicated by the study
because higher incidence of
certain health problems in
developing countries could
make populations more
susceptible to the effects of
fine particulate matter.
AP Photo/Armando Franca
HARVARD’S HUMANITARIAN. Myanmar (also known as
Burma) leader Aung San Suu Kyi attends a meeting on Capitol Hill in
Washington on September 15, 2016. The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize
laureate received the Harvard Foundation’s 2016 Peter J. Gomes
Humanitarian Award on September 17 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
AR Photo/Jan Landis
T
PASSIONATE PLAYER. Nadia Nadim (top photo, left) challenges
for the ball during a match at Providence Park. Nadim, who joined Thorns
FC in January, has scored nine goals and given three assists this season.
In the bottom image, Nadim, who plays for the Denmark Women’s Na-
tional Team, battles against Angie Woznuk of the United States during
an Algarve Cup women’s soccer match in Lagos, southern Portugal,
on March 4, 2009. Woznuk played for the Thorns during the 2013
and 2014 seasons before retiring.
goals.
Beyond soccer, Nadia is pursuing a medical degree with
a specialization in plastic surgery at Aarhus University in
Denmark and has about 18 more months until she com-
pletes the program. Her days in Portland have been filled
with her studies as well as soccer practices and matches.
The budding doctor is fluent in Danish, German, Dari,
Urdu, and English, and she also speaks some French.
Nadim’s sisters, along with their mother, who is now
retired, still live in Denmark. Giti, 29, who as a youth also
played soccer for the Denmark Women’s National Team,
is currently studying medicine and is expected to finish in
January. Diana, 25, a seven-time Danish boxing
champion, is scheduled to fight her next bout in England
in mid-December. Muskan, 22, is enrolled in nursing
school and should earn her degree in about a year. Mujda,
20, plans to start university studies in about a year, after
doing some travelling.
With the 2016 season now in the books, Thorns FC
players and fans will have to wait until spring to see more
soccer records set. The adaptable Nadim will soon be able
to focus a bit more attention on her studies. As Shim
mentioned about her determined and outgoing teammate
and friend when asked about soccer and life, she said
Nadia approaches both the same way: “When she does
something, she’s fully committed to it.”
As witnessed by Nadim’s life so far, her hard work,
persistence, and passion will shine through to the people
around her. She is getting closer to earning her medical
degree and the Thorns next season will be motivated and
ready to go.
The NWSL championship match between the Washington Spirit and the
Western New York Flash, which will be televised live on Fox Sports 1,
is scheduled for Sunday, October 9 at BBVA Compass Stadium in
Houston, Texas. To learn more about the Thorns and the NWSL, visit
<www.portlandthorns.com> and <www.nwslsoccer.com>.