Abu Dhabi: When Nada Al Bedwawi marched with the UAE flag at the Rio Olympics Opening Ceremony, the world sat back and took notice.
It was a sign that Arab women were breaking the glass ceiling in a conservative society and taking giant strides in sports. Indeed, a life-changing moment for the 19-year-old swimmer who is in no mood to rest on her laurels. The NYU Abu Dhabi student wants to create enough of a splash in the pool to attain glory at the highest stage.
Nada, who clocked 33.42 seconds in the 50 metre freestyle heats to set a personal best time at the Games, was in the spotlight during the Emirati Women’s Day celebration at Yas Mall on Sunday.
“Life has changed like 360 degrees. It was overwhelming and exciting. I was really happy to represent my country at the opening ceremony and in swimming. Now I have set my sight on the Games in Tokyo,” said Nada, sporting a broad grin and adding: “This is just a beginning.”
Nada is today’s woman of substance with a vision for herself and believes in speaking her mind.
She was curt in taking a dig at her swimming federation and felt that a lot remains to be done if they are looking at producing more women swimmers for the Olympics.
“When it comes to sports, especially for female swimmers, the funding is not available. I don’t know where the funding goes but when I asked for it, it was not available,” revealed Nada, adding that, for now, she was bearing the costs for her training.
“It takes efforts to make an Olympic athlete. You can’t just give me a pool and swimming suit and say ‘go become an Olympic athlete’. It takes support of the whole country to make you an Olympic athlete,” asserted Nada.
She believes that US and Australian women succeed in swimming due to the tremendous backing they receive.
“What I found was that the swimmers from other countries get a lot of funding and support — especially the women there. Hopefully, that is something I can change here and in the region. Hopefully, we can change that in four years and UAE can also get more medals,” said Nada, who felt that the Games exposure has added a lot to her ‘personality’.
“The experience has motivated me to push myself. In the UAE, I was the only female swimmer going to the Olympics. It can get lonely at times because you don’t know ‘are there others who share the same passion like me?’. But going to the Olympics, I met a lot of swimmers. So, it was a great feeling,” added Nada, who also urged the GCC countries to organise more tournaments to attract women into sports.
“We can see things are changing as Qatar and Bahrain are doing. I’m happy that I have been able to do that here in the UAE. At the GCC Championships, we don’t have women’s competitions.
“There is European Championships but I haven’t participated yet and I want to participate in the next one. Hopefully, at the GCC level things will change and they will allow women to compete. But we do have girls into swimming from different GCC countries and even from Saudi Arabia,” said Nada, who believes introducing swimming in schools is the right way to tap talent. “Definitely, introducing the sport at school level will be very helpful. I will also ask all women to follow their dreams. They should push their limits in whatever sport they have passion in and follow their heart,” said Nada, who signed off the Emirati Women’s Day by insisting: “I also advise all parents to support their daughters all the way through.”
