'A bit dangerous' - Afghan paraglider who braves conflict to train

A horrifying plunge at the Asian Games is nothing for Lida Hozoori, a trailblazing Afghan paraglider who trains in one of the world's hottest conflict zones.

The 24-year-old TV presenter said she wanted to inspire Afghan women to take part in sport as paragliding, where athletes take off from a hillside and manoeuvre a parachute, made its Asian Games debut.

On Wednesday, she was helicoptered to hospital with neck and back injuries when a sudden drop in the wind sent her plummeting 15 metres (50 feet) to the ground.

China's Wang Jianwei also suffered a broken leg when his parachute folded 20 metres from the finishing area, in what was an inauspicious start for the sport.

However, Hozoori shrugged off her crash, sending smiling pictures from her hospital bed and complaining that her coaches wouldn't let her get up and fly again.

Her reaction is perhaps not that surprising given the extra risks in Afghanistan, where paragliders sometimes need police escorts just to go out and train.

In a country which has suffered decades of war, suspicious villagers have been known to mistake paragliders for military aviators and confront them armed with stones.

"Paragliding is not that dangerous, because when you fly you have full control over it," Hozoori told AFP in Bogor, the Asian Games' paragliding venue.

"In Afghanistan it is a bit dangerous. There are some nice mountains in the country but unfortunately because of insecurity we cannot go there."
- 'I want women to fly' -
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"It doesn't matter if it is taekwondo, gymnastics or volleyball -- I want women to fly."