Tashkent, Uzbekistan, January 26, 2026: Hafizullah Wali Rahimi, President of the National Olympic Committee of Afghanistan, was awarded the OCA Order of Merit on Monday, January 26.
Rahimi, who has championed sports development in Afghanistan, first with the government and then with the NOC, was given the OCA Merit Award at the 46th General Assembly in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
The award was presented by OCA Acting President Timothy Fok and OCA Director General Husain Al Musallam.
The 65-year-old Afghan sports administrator has served as the President of the Afghanistan NOC since 2018.
Following the Taliban’s return to power in mid-2021, Rahimi fled his homeland and continues to lead the NOC in exile, a status acknowledged by the International Olympic Committee and the OCA.
Prior to his Olympic role, Rahimi held positions in Afghan government sports directorates, reflecting a career dedicated to physical education and administration in the country, supporting athlete development and women’s participation.
Under his tenure as President, the NOC has secured Olympic Solidarity funding for a number of national sport federations, including athletics, boxing, taekwondo and weightlifting, providing direct financial support for selected athletes at the last two Olympic Games in Tokyo and Paris.
He also played a key role in ensuring that Afghanistan fielded female athletes at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023 – 15 of the 83-strong squad were women, including the women’s volleyball team. Subsequently, the six-member Afghanistan athlete squad at the Paris 2024 Olympics was gender-balanced with three men and three women.
