200m Israeli gold medalist Blessing Afrifah struggled with citizenship issues in his country

Blessing Afrifah is flying high in his career as he recently won the gold medal at the European Athletics Championships in the 200-meter race. Although the young athlete is enjoying fame, his journey so far has not been easy.

Afrifah, who represents Israel in international championships, has a history of struggling with citizenship issues. He was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, to Ghanaian parents who worked in the Middle Eastern country. At the age of seven, he received permanent residence status in Israel, following a government decision in favor of children whose parents worked in the country. But this was not enough for Afrifah as he needed Israeli citizenship to give wings to his athletics dreams.

In 2022, Blessing Afrirah appeared in an interview with Haaretz, explaining his struggle with receiving Israeli citizenship. The 19-year-old shared how important the status was for him.

“People here in Israel made me ‘not an Israeli’ because my parents came from somewhere else. The minute you have citizenship, then you are considered Israeli, but if you don’t have it, you are not part of the ‘Israeliness'," he said.

Blessing Afrifah specialized in the 200m category and knew that he was capable of representing the country on an international level. However, without proper citizenship, his dream was impossible. Therefore, he appealed to the Israeli government to grant him the crucial status when he was 16. After a long wait of two years, Afrifah became a permanent Israeli citizen at the age of 18.

Finally, after a few more ups and downs in championships, the young athlete represented Israel for the first time at the 2021 European Championships Under-20.

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Blessing Afrifah’s performance at the 2023 European Under-23 Athletics Championships

On Sunday, July 16, Blessing Afrifah became the first-ever Israeli to win the gold medal at the 2023 European Under-23 Athletics Championships. He gave a stunning display of his athletic prowess at the 200m event, winning it within a time frame of 20.67 seconds.

Blessing Afrifah at World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 2022 - Day 5

Looking at his strong performances in his career so far, he had already become one of the favorites to win the gold medal.

Although Blessing Afrirah had a strong start at the beginning of the race, he seemed to struggle a bit while overtaking his rival Rafael Bojo in the second leg. However, while approaching the final run of the event, he gathered his energy to finish it first. Even in the semi-final, Afrifah impressed his fans and finished the race first within a time frame of 21.14 seconds.