Judo talent Tara Babulfath has long been trained by her dad Mohammad. The family was by her side when she secured the Olympic bronze, despite nervous moments with the referee.
I thought "back off now, forget about it", says Mohammad Babulfath.
Immediately after the Olympic bronze was secured, 18-year-old Tara Babulfath ran up to the stands and hugged her family.
Babulfath's parents are both skilled former wrestlers, mom Ida Hellström has taken several World Championship and European Championship medals and Mohammad Babulfath has himself represented Sweden in the Olympics.
Tara switched from wrestling to judo when she was little.
I grew up beside the wrestling mat, but I like judo the most, she says.
"There will be more"
Dad couldn't be more proud of his daughter. She has grown up in an environment where she has been allowed to develop athletically at a very high level, he says.
During the Olympics in London, we had two Olympic medalists who came home to us every month and trained. So she has grown up with this.
I have driven this. And I want to lift it up – that there will be more Taras who will go beyond the pattern. It's not impossible to take a medal if you train.
In the semifinal, the 18-year-old lost to Japanese Natsumi Tsunoda, which upset the Swede and made her argue with the referee.
She has a temperament. I understand that there are a lot of feelings. But I thought to myself to back off now. Forget about it. This is not football, says Mohammad Babulfath.
I sought her out. We talked a little right after and calmed her down and focused on the next match. What's done is done. And I think she did it gallantly.
Making history
The Japanese went on to win Olympic gold.
I don't think anyone has shaken the Japanese in the last three years like Tara did, says the dad.
In May, she wrote Swedish sports history when she became the youngest Swedish judoka to take a World Championship medal, a bronze. She also became the second Swedish woman to take a medal at the World Championship, 38 years after Elisabeth Karlsson's World Championship silver in 1986.
And during the Olympics in Paris, she made history again by winning Sweden's first Olympic medal in judo.
