Concern was rife in Olympic circles last night after the unexplained disappearance of Mahbooba Ahadgar, the only female from Afghanistan due to compete in the Beijing Games next month. The fears for Ahadgar are so acute because, while she may be cherished in the West, in her own country, where the Taleban still battle for influence, her progressive activities have courted daily taunts, including death threats.

She has had to abandon the Sim card on her mobile phone because the number had been leaked to extremists and the death threats were becoming constant.

Ahadgar, 19, has been something of a treasure in the Olympic Movement, which likes to encourage a broad global representation within its competitions. Being from Afghanistan and a woman proud of both her athleticism and Muslim religion, and thus determined to run in Beijing in a headscarf and a tracksuit, she has clear representative appeal.

Her running times suggest that she is likely to finish nearly a full minute behind the medal-winners in the Olympic 1,500 metres. Nevertheless, she won a scholarship this year on to the Olympic Solidarity programme, which helps sportspeople from underdeveloped countries. The scholarship took her first to a high-performance centre in Kuala Lumpur, then to summer training in Formio, Italy, from where she disappeared on Thursday evening. When Ahadgar was reported missing, her luggage was gone, too, although not her passport. “I have no idea where she has gone,” Mohd Musa, who was coaching her when she was in Kuala Lumpur, said.

The police in Formio have been informed. They will know, too, that Shahpoor Amri, one of the coaches at the Formio training centre, had been instructed to be particularly vigilant with Ahadgar. Her recent history and the testimony of those who know her suggest that this is unlikely to be a pitch for political asylum. “Being a Muslim woman, we are restricted to a certain lifestyle which doesn’t [traditionally] allow us to participate actively in sports,” she said in a recent interview given as part of a series by Olympic Solidarity scholars.

“Apart from running, I just help out at home due to our family background, which requires me to take care of the house properly, as a woman. I need to change this concept and I presume my country will accept and adhere to it. I’m the model for my country, being a woman in a typical Muslim nation. I’m very proud to say that I will be participating in the Olympic Games. By virtue of these opportunities, many women from my country are participating in many sports, and this will help to develop a bettermanaged sports country.” At home, where her father earns his living as a carpenter and her family live in a poor district, they have long been worried about the baggage that comes with Ahadgar being a standard-bearer. When she trained at home in Kabul, she tended to do so at 8.30pm, when many residents are glued to the nation’s most popular daily soap opera and thus when she could run without fear of threats or harassment.

“We are really scared about the security situation in our country and of the people who have negative views about my family,” Moha Jan, her mother, said. She added: “But these problems cannot stop us from supporting our daughter.”

Ahadgar does not even view herself as dramatically progressive. If forced to abandon the headscarf, or to run in the standard athletes’ Lycra, she says that she would merely pull out of athletic competition.

While her courage and determination are admirable, the fear is that she has become their victim. She may be the victim of circumstance, too; no other female Olympian so very far from medal contention will have had international media knocking on their door. After one such visit from Western media, the police arrived at her family house as it had been reported that she was entertaining foreign men as a prostitute.

One of the first journalists to track her down, in March, was Paula Bronstein, a photographer with Getty Images, who specialises in Afghanistan. “She was a timid, normal girl and a bit overwhelmed,” Bronstein recalled. She also noticed the jealousy of some of the neighbours, particularly because Ahadgar is a female. “It’s just not normal to have a female track star in your family,” she said.

A similar level of peculiar notoriety was reached four years ago in Athens by Robina Muqimyar and Friba Rezihi, who became the first Afghan women to compete in an Olympics. There were no Afghans at all in the Sydney Olympics as the nation had been banned because of objections to Taleban rule. The hope remains that there will be a female Afghan in Beijing.