Arslan Khataev cries a week after arriving in Finland – a boxer who has grown up for the Olympics fears returning to his homeland

Arslan Khataev played football in his backyard when he saw armed men approaching. A group of soldiers arrived to disturb Khataev’s family once again.

In the past, they had kicked in the door, interrogated the family, and taken away his father. Arslan did not dare to ask his parents about the matter, but he guessed the soldiers had beaten his father elsewhere.

Arslan was only a small schoolboy, but his first reaction was a desire to defend home and family. He began throwing stones at the soldiers.

– I was small, energetic and stupid. When they come to my cabin, of course I get thrown. That was my world of thought. When the rocks ran out, I ran up to them, Arslan says.

Now Arslan is 23 years old. The interview will be conducted at his home in Helsinki’s Mäkelänrinte.

Arslan turns his back and shows a scar on his back of his head. It is a memory of Chechnya when a soldier struck him in the head with an assault rifle.

More than a decade has passed since Arslan and his big brothers fled the war and unrest. In Finland, Khataev has grown up without his parents, and has developed into one of the world’s best amateur boxers in the 60-pound series.

Watch Arslan’s story on Sportliv:

Arslan Khataev was born into a corner of the world that has been ravaged by wars for centuries. Chechnya, formerly part of the Persian Empire and later part of Iran, has been fighting Russian imperialism since the 18th century.

When the second son of the Khataev family was born in 1998, only two years had passed since the end of the thoroughbred war between Chechnya and Russia.

However, Arslan only managed to turn a year when the war broke out again – a war that would last ten years and claim 80,000 Chechen lives.

Today, the small village of Engel-Yurt, located a few tens of kilometers east of the capital Grozny, is mostly ruined. There Arslan spent his early childhood.

In the first years of Arslan’s life, the bloodiest battles of the war did not plague the home village. However, the family was not allowed to live their lives in peace. The war got closer and closer.

When Arslan was 5-6 years old, residents of Engel-Yurt said escaping was the only sensible option.

– I remember being in my mother’s arms in the car. Dad has said he was the only one who had a car in our village, an old Lada. Everyone wanted their stuff in Dad’s car, and he took what he could.

After escaping the completely destroyed Engel-Yurt, Khataev’s family settled in Khasavyurt, Dagestan, Chechnya’s eastern neighbor. Arslan’s parents still live there.

The family could not escape the constant harassment of the soldiers, but was on the sidelines from the worst war zones.

Arslan was bullied at school. He was small in size and constantly got licked by his 10-year-old classmates.

The teachers did not intervene. There was no fighting inside the school, but it was not tackled in the yard.

Arslan’s father noticed his son often came home from school in ragged clothes. He suggested to Arslan that he take a break from school to learn to box.

After two months of training, Arslan returned to school, where his boxing skills were very useful. He got even more excited about his new hobby after winning a grand trophy in the races.

The internship increased when he moved away from home and to a sports school in Dagestan at the suggestion of his father. There, he once again had to defend himself with his fists in order to adapt to the harsh daily life with other young martial arts masters who came from challenging conditions.

According to Khataev, life at the Spartak Khasavyurt Sports School was reminiscent of what he later experienced in the Finnish army – but only in certain respects.

– There was no whipping here, Khataev notes with a grin on his face.

There was a tough discipline at the sports school. Failure to stand in a straight line after the coach counted to three resulted in an immediate penalty. The coaches had different methods of punishment: some used a whip, others hit the students in the head with stiff fingers.

Pupils learned to respect the rules and did not complain easily about just about anything. The dining room was marched in direct queues. The exercises were not skipped, even if the previous ones were injured.

The few who complained of too much discipline were thrown out of the sports school.

– I digged. It was quite fair that those who could not bear to go were thrown out of there. Why? From there, the small sports school has become world champions and Olympic winners, says Khataev.

Many of the children went home weekly, but Arslan also often spent weekends at the Sports School. If you compare his present day more than a decade ago, there are huge differences, but also similarities.

Khataev currently resides at the Olympic Committee Training Center in Urhea, Helsinki. He has optimal training conditions and has everything he needs as a boxer: massage, physiotherapy, and ice baths and other equipment to prevent injuries and help with recovery.

– Finland has such a good system and everything is available. If there was a little tougher discipline here, then it would be just sick, Khataev hints at, referring to potential sports success.

After Arslan spent a couple of years at the Sports School, his ten-year-old brother came on a surprise visit. Arslan had just arrived from training when his brother asked him to quickly pack his most important belongings. At first, he thought they were going to see their parents, but the assumption turned out to be wrong.

– The brother didn’t say anything to me, and I’m not asking terribly again. There is no custom in our culture to ask. If you are not told anything, there may be a reason for it.

The big brother, who had experienced many unpleasant soldiers’ home visits, had arranged for an escape. They drove around and spent the night with acquaintances until it was time for a long bus ride.

The bus headed northwest. After about three thousand miles they drove past Peter. Arslan’s brother delivered the papers to the border guard. They were allowed to continue their journey and arrived at the Karhula reception center in Kotka.

In the room, Big Brother told Arslan that this would not see his parents for a long time.

– I must have been crying in that room for a week. I realized that v *** u, now it’s a real thing. And I only realized that I was in Finland.

Arslan was 12 years old. For the first few weeks in Finland, he recovered from the shock at his reception center with his brother, but after that they had to move apart. Arslan was placed in an orphanage.

At first, the adjustment was difficult. The defense mechanisms perceived in his favor were not accepted in Finland.

– I went to school, the gang grinned at me and teased me – I immediately pulled my head. Teachers said not to fight. I was that how not to get it?

Gradually, he got used to living alone in his room. He enjoyed social work and played football with refugee children from Somali and Arab backgrounds after school days.

Arrival and meal times were tight in the orphanage. At times, he was late and got scolded, but he was used to a much stricter discipline at the Sports School in Dagestan.

She was a teenager who grew up without her parents. Sometimes mistakes had to be made, but he learned from them. He watched his new friends of the same age behave to understand what was right and what was wrong.

Big brother occasionally visited the orphanage. One day he took Arslan to the boxing hall. Without asking permission from any coach, Arslan stepped onto the punching bags and began training.

– I always trained alone. I noticed that the gang did know I was good, but no one wanted to come talk.

One day a man arrived in the hall, following Arslan’s training with great interest. At the end of the workout, the man wondered if anyone had coached Arslan.

That man, Risto Peräjoki, is still a good friend of Arslan. Peräjoki became Khataev’s first coach in Finland.

– He took it to the competition at his own expense, he got all the licenses. Then I beat these local tough guys. Risto was the first to see the potential in me here, says Arsla with warmth.

After living in an orphanage for a year, Arslan was allowed to move into a studio with her brother. After a couple of years, the brother’s wife and children also moved to Finland, and Arslan moved into a larger apartment with them.

After spending a few years in Kotka, Arslan moved to Porvoo to follow his brother’s family. He had to say goodbye to his coach Peräjoki.

The resignation from the coach was wistful but at the same time the beginning of a new one. In Porvoo, Khataev met his current coach Karre Anttosen.

– Karre is not just my coach, but more than my family. She has been to me like a father and mother for these seven years.

In Anttonen’s coaching, Khataev immediately began touring around the world. Only after more than a year of cooperation did he win silver at the European Under-19 Championships.

Since then, he has taken on hard scalps, won the German Bundesliga and played equal matches against future Olympic winners. Last fall, he missed one match-winning medal at the World Championships, where he finished seventh.

– I am proud to represent Finland. It’s thanks to me for getting here and getting a chance to get results. In return, I am currently flying the Finnish flag, even though I am a Chechen in my blood.

Without exaggeration, Khataev can be called a Finnish medalist for the upcoming Paris Olympics – if he continues to compete in the amateur round in 2024. The professionalism attracts a 23-year-old who would not want to spend the best years of his career in amateur.

It has been more than a decade since Khataev left his entire childhood war behind. However, worries about parents and siblings still living in Dagestan have not gone anywhere.

Chechnya is led by the president Ramzan Kadyrov, which operates on the orders of the Kremlin. Through him, Russia subjugates and represses Chechen protesters and their relatives.

– It is a contemporary thing in Russia and Chechnya that people are being bullied through the family. It just goes on and on until one of them is happy, sighs Khataev.

Due to the war in Ukraine, the plight of the Chechens has improved momentarily. The attention of the Russian leadership is elsewhere. On the other hand, the situation has caused new concerns for Khataev.

– I have a little broth there, and who knows what might happen to him too. One day you suddenly knock on the door to go to war.

As a Chechen, Khataev also has a Russian passport. If he crosses the Russian border, he may have to go straight to war with Ukraine.

In recent years, he has had the opportunity to meet his family during training camps. At present, however, traveling to Dagestan is an excluded option.

– I don’t know what can happen to me if I cross the border. That’s why I don’t dare go there to train there now, say hello to family or anything.

Khataevilla has a tough background. He is used to living with worries. He can handle his feelings and keep his head cold, while focusing on his boxing and life in Finland.

What is taking him the most at the moment is the involvement of the Chechens in the war in Ukraine with the Russians. According to Khataev, the Chechens should oppose the war, even with the threat that resistance could mean being imprisoned or escaping their lives.

He is annoyed that the level of education in Chechnya is so low that local young people do not understand fighting for their own people and themselves.

– Those guys have been brainwashed so badly that they don’t know why they’re going to war. So they know absolutely nothing, Khataev says.

– The Russians have killed our ancestors and wanted to destroy our people, and then these guys agree to go to war on their behalf. I think that is wrong.