Dorsa_Yavarivafa
Dorsa Yavarivafa
Iranian badminton player (born 2003)
Dorsa Yavarivafa (born 31 July 2003) is an Iranian badminton player who has been selected to compete for the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Introduced to badminton by her father when she was nine-years-old, Yavarivafa left Iran aged 15 along with her mother due to safety concerns eventually arriving in Great Britain.[2] Having been given permission to stay in the country, she initially lived in Birmingham before moving to London where she was introduced to former badminton player now Athletes’ Department Director at the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Kaveh Mehrabi, who suggested she could become part of the Refugee Olympic Team.[3] In June 2023, she was awarded an IOC Refugee Scholarship. [4] The funding helped Yavarivafa compete in several international tournaments and on 2 May 2024, she was among 36 athletes named in the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2024 Summer Olympics.[5]