This is a bonkers read, shows some insight into how things are within Syrian sport.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/syria_football_on_the_frontlineThe walls of the sports hall vibrate when yet another mortar bomb lands close by.
Two hundred children, competing in a regional taekwondo tournament, barely flinch at the sound of the detonation.
This is part of daily life in Syria’s war-torn capital Damascus. The children trying to win medals on this particular Friday morning have known nothing else during their short, turbulent lives.
“In this sport complex, more than 170 mortars have landed,” says Brigadier General Mowaffak Joumaa, the president of Syria’s national Olympic committee who is in the audience.