The "miracle" of survival of Iraqi sport

By Aseel Kami

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - To reach Bashar Mustafa's office at the headquarters of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, you have to pass by the black flags of mourning hanging in the lobby, a reminder of more than 104 athletes killed since 2003.

You also have to get past security guards, a reminder of the threat Mustafa himself faces.

His predecessor as Olympic Committee boss -- former basketball player Ahmed al-Hadjiya -- was kidnapped along with other sport officials by gunmen who stormed a conference in broad daylight in 2006. They are still missing.

Olympic committee deputy secretary general Raad Jabir was gunned down in a cafe in early April while having tea with an athlete and a referee.

Yet somehow, Iraq is determined to make its presence felt at the Olympics in Beijing.

Six Iraqi athletes have already won spots at the Beijing games -- two rowers, a sprinter, a discus thrower, a judoist and an archer. Others still hope to qualify in rowing, weightlifting and wrestling.

They have to train in country where just surviving is difficult, where their reputations and international links make them and their families targets of criminal gangs, and where the infrastructure of fitness and sport has decayed over decades.

"It is a miracle," says Mustafa.