STORY: This Iraqi athlete once played high-level soccer,

before joining the country's wheelchair basketball team

Locator: Baghdad, Iraq

In 2007, Ahmed Naser and his teammate went shopping

for new soccer cleats and were caught in an explosion

The bomb left Naser with no legs and killed his friend

(Ahmed Naser, Paralympic athlete)

"I used to play on this field. When I look at it, I remember the days I used to play soccer, beautiful days.”

The bomb was one of many that ripped apart the capital

in the years of violence following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion

But Naser did not give up on his athletic career

Now he plays basketball on Iraq’s national Paralympic team

He says it’s hard to get support

“The situation before is better than now, nothing is available to us, we suffer to secure things. We are now approaching the World Cup and there is still no support. The national team won the Gulf Cup in an unofficial friendly championship, as you know parliamentarians, officials and businessmen promote themselves but no one promotes us. We are heading to the World Cup, until this moment no one visited us or told us congratulations, no one from the ministry of youth and sports, parliament, prime ministry.”

Naser and his team will be competing in the

Wheelchair Basketball World Championships in June