London:How one can rate the UAE contingent’s presence at the 2012 London Games be described?
Conceded, this was the first time-ever that most of its athletes, barring one, the swimmer Mubarak Salem, were direct entries through the tough process of qualifying since the past few months — all in search of a dream to be Olympians.
However, was it worth the while? For sure, questions will be asked and reports will be submitted before the authorities. But more than the introspection, what is needed most is the will to have a strategy in place. The planning needs to be start from the grassroots level where the aspiring children, more importantly, girl athletes need to be encouraged to dream the Olympic dream.
Until now, school sport do not have an uniform standard to pursue in sport with most sticking to team events such as football, basketball, handball and volleyball. This, despite the observers pointing out that the only hope for the Gulf countries lies in pursuing individual sports.
What exactly is wrong with sport here that our athletes cannot win at the highest level? Is it the lack of will to go out there and pit your talent against the best? Or is it a lack of ambition? Or is it pure lack of professionalism in pursuing the ultimate goal?
Perhaps, all the answers can be found with the one man who went on prove that it is possible to chart your course in sport: the UAE’s lone Olympic medalist Shaikh Ahmad Hasher Al Maktoum.
After seven years of being the UAE national squash champion, he stopped one fine day and expressed his desire to bring home an Olympic medal for the UAE. Everyone who heard this initially scoffed at him but he continued gamely, performing at small shooting championships at first and then graduating to bigger ones after being noticed for his desire to be among the best. What had started in 1997 suddenly came to fruition in August 2004 as he stood proudly on the podium with that piece of gold hanging around his neck.
The sporting world shook up and took notice of a country called UAE. He dreamed the dream, and over a period of seven years, travelled the world till that golden day came in the history of UAE sport.
However, can the UAE afford to sit back on this lone Olympic success or is it time to further spread the word of this challenge in each and every corner of the country so that we have a pool of youngsters, who over a period of time, can be the champions of the future?
Time alone will tell.
