Paris 2024: Fast and furious - why Ammar Ali loves the thrill of wheelchair fencing

It was just a regular workday morning and Ammar Ali had nothing more on his mind than his job as a carpenter in Baghdad as he walked to work. Without warning, there was a devastating bomb blast and Ali’s life changed beyond recognition. 

“I was a carpenter who made ceilings before the accident,” Ali, who was 23 at the time, recalls. “I got to work and there was this bomb blast in the street.”

That was 2007 at the height of the Iraq civil war and it was to take another two years before Ali, who was paralysed from the waist down, became a wheelchair fencer.

‘I didn’t know anything about fencing’

He made his Paralympic Games debut at London 2012 and competed at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, where he reached the quarterfinals.

But Para sport had been the furthest thing from his mind until he took up wheelchair fencing.

“My beginning with this sport in 2009, I didn’t know they have sport for the disabled people. They [Al-Thura Sport Club] come to hospital and told me, ‘Can you come and see what sport I play’?

“I went to Baghdad where there are two club for disabled people and they told me that my body is tall, you must play fencing. But I didn’t know anything about the fencing.”

Luckily for Ali, he liked the sport and his tall upper body helped too.

“I liked it [wheelchair fencing]. It is a sport for a good mind to think about what you are doing when you go to play it.

“You need a lot of focus for this, and you must think because action is very fast. I like this sport because you need a lot of focus.”

Ali’s first major competition ended with a gold medal at the Guangzhou Asian Games 2010, and this result persuaded him that there was a future in wheelchair fencing.

Paralympic Games No. 4

Emotions were tested at the London 2012 Paralympic Games when Ali failed to win a medal. But he returned home more determined than ever with his eye on a medal at Rio 2016.

“The first Paralympic Games in London was very difficult. In 2012, I lost but after London I trained well and got the (silver) medal (in Rio).

For Iraq's 1st Paralympic medallist #AmmarAli 🇮🇶, Fencing 🤺🤺means #Peace & #Happiness. #Tokyo2020 on his mind now!
Read here: https://t.co/Z8RexS8mIB#AsianParalympic #Wheelchairfencing #IWAS #Tbilisi2018 #Inspire @IWASFencing @IWASFed @WestAsiaPara @Paralympics @Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/5n3nSV8hzy

— Asian Paralympic Committee (@asianparalympic) November 19, 2018

Ali will compete in the men’s epee and foil category B at the Paris 2024 Paralympics, which open on 28 August. He cannot wait to compete in front of spectators at the Grand Palais, after competing at Tokyo 2020, which took place with some restrictions because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In Tokyo everything was closed. We didn’t go out from my room. It is difficult. In Paris it will be better because COVID is gone. I think it is important that they [the crowds] are cheering us.”

‘Para sport changed my life’

Ali was beaten 10-5 in the quarter-finals by Brazil’s Jovane Silva Guissone in Tokyo and is on a mission to improve at Paris. At the Terni 2023 Wheelchair Fencing World Championships, the Iraqi team of Ali, Zainalabdeen Al-Madhkhoori and Hayder Ali-Ogaili defeated Paralympic silver medallists China to take gold in the men’s team epee.

Ali still manages to do some carpentry, he fixes doors, furniture, smaller items. But it is wheelchair fencing which grabs his attention all of the time.

“Para sport changed my life. I think sport is very important for disabled people. If I go to the national team I must do the sport. It is important for our body.

"If you sleep a lot and sit a lot it’s not good for disabled people. A lot of times I sacrifice for the sport, we are training a lot. Sometimes it is good and sometimes it is not good.

“I need a lot of focus and all the time my family support me.” 

Discover more about the 22 sports in the Paris 2024 Paralympic sports programme