In his own words:
My name is Omar Mohammed Karim. I was born in 1955 in Kaniskan neighborhood of Sulaymaniyah. I have been passionate about sports since childhood, such as football and long distance running. I started playing in the national teams in 1966 in Iskan neighborhood. We were a group of warm-blooded young people, most of us of the same age. Many men from the neighborhood came to watch us when we were training or playing. One of the people who was close to us was our dear brother and the heroic martyr Jamali Ali Bapir, who supported us a lot and encouraged us to continue. Then he asked us to change the name of our team to Martyr Kamal Salim. Shortly thereafter, he became our coach and played for our team.
In 1969, I joined the youth team of Sulaymaniyah and participated in the education team. In the same year, I was fourth in Iraq in the 5000 meters race at the education level. In 1971, because I did not go to the army, I became a player for the Sulaymaniyah police, which were in the Iraqi championship that year.
In the same year, they selected me for the Sulaymaniyah national team. We continued to play until 1974. Then, because of the September Revolution, most of our team joined the revolution as a national duty to our nation. As a Peshmerga, most of the players stayed with Martyr Jamal Ali Bapir, whose rank was in the revolution as a team leader. After a few months, some of our players went to East Kurdistan to participate in the Kurdistan national team and we played several friendly matches. Until the collapse of the revolution, we were abroad. After returning to Sulaymaniyah, they moved us to southern Iraqi cities. After several years, we returned to Sulaymaniyah, but we could no longer play sports.
Three years after the great uprising of 1991, we were able to turn our team into a club in 1994.
In 1995, they established the Kurdistan Olympic Committee. Since its establishment, they have held two congresses. In both of them, I was appointed as a member of the executive committee and vice president.
He died on 30-11-2008.[1]