An Afghan Olympian once snuck into cycling races in a hijab. Then the Taliban took over.

• Cyclist Fariba Hashimi represented Afghanistan at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
• Hashimi and her sister both fled the country and competed in open defiance of its Taliban rulers.
• Hashimi told BI she wants her journey to inspire Afghan women and highlight their strength.

Afghan Olympic cyclist Fariba Hashimi was 15 when she entered her first cycling race.

It was also the first day she ever rode a bike.

"It was not seen as a woman's sport," she told Business Insider. "Since it was new, it was not easily accepted."

Both Hashimi and her sister Yulduz just fulfilled a dream that seemed impossible — representing their country at the Paris 2024 Olympics, in defiance of Afghanistan's Taliban rulers.

As a child, Hashimi had only ever seen women cycle on TV, and she and Yulduz dreamed about taking up the sport together, she said.

One day, a race was advertised locally; there was talk of women being able to join it. Quietly, the sisters approached the organizers, who agreed to disguise their names so they could race in secret. The pair wore hijabs to help disguise them further.

They had three hours with a borrowed bike to figure out how to ride before the race, she said.

"When I got on the bike I could tell that this is my route, and I felt a sense of freedom," Hashimi told BI.

Soon, the sisters were racing regularly.

In the summer of 2021, President Joe Biden took the decision to pull all US troops out of Kabul . The Afghan government collapsed in the power vacuum the US withdrawal left behind, leading the Taliban to retake power for the first time since 2001.

The Taliban said they would preserve many freedoms that had been gained by women and girls. But they soon abandoned those promises, and within months all women's sport was banned.

For Hashimi and her sister, the choice was stark: leave the country to chase their dreams, or stay with her family and have their rights stripped.

They decided to leave, with their family's support, Hashimi said. "We would not have been allowed to live a normal life or go outside, and we did not accept this," she said.

Aided by the veteran Italian cyclist Alessandra Cappellotto, they fled the country.

"Leaving was not easy," Hashimi said. "My heart was ripped in two."

Despite this, the sisters went from strength to strength.

The pair led the field in a 35-mile road cycling competition for Afghan women exiles in Switzerland in 2022. Hashimi pulled ahead, beating even Yulduz to become the national champion.

"I didn't think I would win, I thought it would be my sister," she said at the time .

In June this year, a greater prize beckoned; the Olympics Committee announced a six-person team to represent Afghanistan in cycling, athletics, judo and swimming.

Ahead of the competition, Hashimi was ranked 90th, and outperformed expectations in the women's road race — held on August 4 — to come 75th.

Now, Hashimi wants to continue cycling to send a message to the world about the strength of Afghan women — and to inspire all the sportswomen she left behind.

"I know a few other athletes that stayed to live in Afghanistan, but they are excluded from the world and can only dream by watching the sport that they are passionate about on TV," she said.

"They are also watching me on TV and telling me on a daily basis how they wish that they were able to chase their dreams, as I currently am," she said.