Polio can't stop competitive swimmer

By Nick Edlin

NZ Herald·

20 Feb, 2015 04:00 PM5 mins to read

Karim Rostami overcame the odds to swim in competitions. Photo / BW Media

Refugee who fled Taliban as a teenager didn’t let disability stop him from pursuing sporting dream

One of the great attractions of sport is that it allows people to test themselves and achieve things they hadn't known they were capable of - in other words, to overcome odds.

No person knows this better than 34-year-old Auckland man Karim Rostami, who is preparing to compete in the State Ocean Swim Series' Sand to Surf event in Mt Maunganui next month.

Rostami came to New Zealand from his hometown of Kabul in Afghanistan as an 18-year-old asylum seeker after fleeing the Taliban. He arrived in the country with little more than the shirt on his back.

"I came here with no English, no friends, no money, and no work experience because I was quite young," he says.

If those circumstances weren't challenging enough, Rostami also had to deal with polio, something he had been afflicted with since infancy. At first it seemed Rostami was destined for a life without the use of his legs, but through extensive therapy and commitment he learned to walk, even if his movement was, and continues to be, severely limited.

Somehow Rostami was able to elevate himself from that extraordinary combination of disadvantages and make a life for himself in Auckland. But things didn't come easily.

"It took a while," he says. "It was challenging. At the beginning it hits you - you get this heart-breaking [feeling], like, 'how am I going to do this?' But slowly you accept [things] - I am here, I am who I am, and I am going to make it work.

"And from there you think positively, and you make positive choices, and they help you to move.

"Now I can look back and be thankful to New Zealand for giving me a second chance and an opportunity to make a new home. I took it with two hands."

He most certainly did. Upon arriving, Rostami worked and saved enough money to sponsor his family to come to New Zealand. He now works as the general manager of a chain of cafes, and is passionate about his job.

"I work very hard," he says. "I love it. I love the challenge of it."

That love of challenges led him to swimming. The sport might seem like an odd choice for a person with limited leg movement, but Rostami says it is better for him than many other sports. He has also developed a novel technique to get around the problem posed by his legs.

"I'm not a good walker like a normal person," he says. "I can't run, I can't do climbing - I'm not 100 per cent fit.

"But you accept the way you are and build your life around it. When I swim I don't use my legs. I compete using my arms only. I tie my legs together - I work with it."

Rostami trains four or five times a week, clocking around 5kms per session. He divides this time between the Parnell Baths and Kohimarama Beach. He swam the 2.9km Harbour Crossing in this season's State Ocean Swim Series and enjoyed it so much he's now gearing up to tackle the Sand to Surf.

He also wants to raise money for Surf Life Saving New Zealand.

"It was such an incredible experience for me to swim across the Auckland Harbour," he says. "The support I have received has inspired me to raise more funds for Surf Lifesaving."

This combination of challenging events and fundraising has also given Rostami some big ideas for the future.

"I would like to do the Cook Strait. That's my bucket list [thing] to do - the Cook Strait or the English Channel, and do massive fundraising for charities. I'm doing some homework on it," he says.

In addition to swimming the Sand to Surf, Rostami also plans to do a crossing of Lake Taupo in the next few weeks.

Rostami is reluctant to say too much about his own achievements, but he knows that his story can be used to demonstrate to other people in the community that nothing is impossible. "Everything is doable if you're willing to put the time into it," he says. [Difficulties are] something you live with. I can show people if you live with it you work with it.

"I've got a disability in my legs, but I didn't let it stop me doing what I wanted to do. I did swimming and pushed myself. I became a better swimmer and a healthy person, and now it's in my blood."

Scott Rice, the organiser of the State Ocean Swim Series, says Rostami is an inspirational character.

"What he is doing to raise money for Surf Life Saving New Zealand is amazing, and to come back for another round is incredible."