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Swimmer Anam Bandey crashes out of the Olympics
With her time of five minutes and 34.64 seconds, Anam finished last in the list of 35 starters.
Anam finished last in the list of 35 starters. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE
LONDON: Pakistan’s Olympics dreams were dealt a brutal blow on the opening day of competition proper as its solitary female swimmer, 15-year-old Anam Bandey, crashed out of the mega event, ending fourth in her 400m medley heats.
With her time of five minutes and 34.64 seconds, Anam finished last in the list of 35 starters, almost 36 seconds slower than Argentine Georgina Bardach who finished 34th.
Anam and Israr Hussain were Pakistan’s two representatives in the swimming event. The Rawalpindi-based Israr finished his men’s 100m heat in 57.69 seconds.
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A bold girl from Pakistan representing the conservative nation in Swimming is a huge feat in itself and we must appreciate it at all costs that still she had the guts to represent us.
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Doesn’t matter. Well done you tried your best! Only 15 years old!
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Brutal Blow! come on give a break. Why are we so far from realism. She is what she is because of her own will and effort and Pakistani govt like in everything else did not do anything for her to get her best coaches. So it was expected and she reached the Olympics that is a credit for her.
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@Awans Nevertheless much appreciated but it also show how much a Country invest in Health and whats the awarness for health in general population of the country. One participat explains it all.
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Participation in this event is itself a great performance. Keep it up.
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at 15, representing Pakistan in Olympics – you’ve already made us proud girl! Wish you success in many more olympics and cups to come :) Pakistan loves you!
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ET should also mention that she set a new national record for pakistan.
Plus i agree that calling it brutal blow is going over board. she was never expected to win a medal to begin with.
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“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.” Pierre de Coubertin 1908 Olympic Games
Well done Anam- the whole nation is proud of you!!!!!
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Her paricipation is gold for us, no wonder she didn’t win! Cheers!!
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stupid title ET.. building stupid expectations… our sport is only cricket… where we have the right to build expectations.. not olympics..
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her effort should be lauded, i don’t understand what are the yardstick applied when we are criticising her.
well done Anam Bandey
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@SalSal: Yes. Amazingly Pakistan had been the nation which used to be mighty active during 60s. A very important thing once said by an elder that a community’s health could be seen by their involvement in games, slowly we have only witnessed decrease in our olympics participations.
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Shame on you for the way this story has been worded / titled. It is an honour just to compete in the olympics and represent your country. Buck up Anum, we are all proud of you.
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@ Awans .. There are no opportunities for ordinary Pakistanis male or female in the different fields of sports specially like swimming that require certain facilities. Only the lucky and the elite have access for pools and courts. The lady was not bold but was lucky .. there are hundreds of thousands of girls in Pakistan waiting for an opportunity like that but she was the one who got it. its only fair to expect better from her.. after all it were our taxes that paid her training and travelling bills .. Olympics is not all about some photo opportunities and recreation
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Atleast she tried!! she’s better than ET bloggers who’re nothing more than keyboard gangsters envying the success of others…………..
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Dawn covered this story much better.while she competed with the best of the best, she also managed to break national record.we’re proud of her effort and believe that with proper coaching and resources they can bring many accolades for Pakistan.
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so proud of u our lil girl ,
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Doesn’t matter. Great Job Anum. U made us proud just by being there.
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Pakistan loves you Anam. We’re still very proud of you :)
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Why is every body cheering her up and being proud of what she did. Yes, she is 15 years old, but what else she have done apart from bringing another defeat to Pakistan.She should have waited for more years to grow up or should have practiced more. Being 15 years old is no excuse. I just cant understand what our government officials are thinking while sending such talent less and immature athletes to olympics, where only professionals and hardworkers succeed. Our athletes shall provide no competition at Olympics. And my heart weeps to see Pakistan losing every where, no matter its sports, education or even politics
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Good effort. Way to go Anum. We are proud of you.
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And For God’s sake, being 15 years old is not an excuse …
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Being 15 years old is not an excuse. A poor performance to begin with. Huh. was’nt there any other swimmer who could actually swim
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participation is an achievement itself for a country like ours…
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with the swimming facilities available in Pak-esp for females,entering Olympics in itself is a huge achievement. Good effort Anum!
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Not a “brutal blow” exactly, she finished last by a last margin and even competed because she was invited by the IOC. As for the male swimmer, his time of 57+ seconds is even slower the average women’s time in the 100m
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Well tried young lady.
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Great attempt, keep up the good work and one day your be one of the winners. For the people itching to complain, go try for yourself and win else don’t complain.
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@Ahmed, hey you could have tried out for olympics. Then, you would have benefited from the taxes…I feel like if you haven’t even at least tried to compete at a national or world level for Pakistan, you don’t have the right to criticize someone who has. And also she isn’t the only girl or guy with access to a pool in Pakistan. There are at least a couple of million Pakistanis who either have access to a pool or could buy access. Yet there are only a handful of world-class swimmers…
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Good effort…Keep trying!
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Anum Bhundey great work lol
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For those who question why a 15 yr old competed in the Olympics if you removed your head from the NEGATIVE BRAIN ZONE many world athletes have done the same to come back later for the GOLD for their country!
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Dear ET,
Please rewrite this news item to correctly record the facts. There were no realistic medal hopes associated with young Anam Bandey’s participation in the Olympics. In fact, there are no medal hopes attached to any of our athletes, including our consistently underperforming hockey team. The important news is that a young 15 year old Pakistani girl who probably never got any real support from the sports authorities, and probably was discouraged for supposedly religious and cultural reasons, represented her country at the highest forum and outdid herself. She not only improved her personal best but also set a new national record. Now that is newsworthy! Well done Anam. We are proud of you.
Thousands of athletes will participate in the Olympics in the next two weeks. A very small percentage of them are medal hopefuls. Most of them are there to bring honor to their country by participating at the highest level and by doing their best. In the process innumerable personal bests and national records will be improved. All of them are winners in their own right.
In the end the vast majority of medals will go to the few countries which invest heavily in their sports programmes and athletes. Its ironic that a loserish country like Pakistan that does next to nothing to widely promote sports has the audacity to have any medal hopes. We should be grateful to these athletes who represent Pakistan, against all the odds and through their own efforts. And recognize the honor that they bring to us by their efforts. This newspaper can do much better by our athletes by recognizing their achievements.
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win or lose is part of the game at least u tried and now good luck for your safety in pak bcoz any mullah can issue fitwa against you :(
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Our targets should be simple. Don’t come LAST. At least you should come second last if nothing else. If you can’t even do that then you shouldn’t have been at the olympics at all.
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@Zeeshan Hanif – The exposure she got is not worthy ? She was called by IOC and with 22 athletes in total , you want our athletes to wait out ? She must have learnt a few things in this Olympics i bet !
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What a credit this girl is to her nation! At only 15 she has made it to the Olympics which is far more than many people will ever achieve without any financial or coaching backing from Pakistan. She has been training in London with a coach that has trained 4 world record holders and he wasn’t even allowed to attend the Games with her due to Pakistans coaching selection policy! Credit where credit is due this girl has guts and determination and managed to break a Pakistan record.
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@Awans: totally agree with you!!
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Nice effort. Keep it up!Recommend
Totally unislamic swimming wear. How can we allow it in the holy month of ramadan?
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ye shiwen of china is also 16 and she stands first in 400m IM and sets world record. Its a silly excuse that she was just fifteen and we don’t have proper facilities for swimming because she was practicing in uk and there they have state of the art facilities and best coaches.
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she is the pride of nation, irrespective of that she dint won a medal but she was number 4 and our only swimmer to be appearing in these olympics. Media should promote her.Recommend
Humble request to ET please change the title of this article, or try to rewrite in an appreciating manner, Thank you.
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Crashes out of Olympics!!! What? Were you expecting a medal from her? We need reasons to boost our false pride; settle down, just participation in Olympics isn’t an enough reason to be proud. To give you an idea about the performance, her time was 5:34.64, while her closest time was 4:57.31. The difference is almost 37 seconds, which is more than a light year in swimming. To the ones; who are complaining about facilities and government blah blah… Israr Hussain works in an organization, which claims most of our revenue and foreign boon. If that organization cannot produce one sportsman, who can perform somewhat reasonable at international level, then I don’t know what to say. There are far worse of country than ours which had been winning Golds at world stage.
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15 is not a young age for an athlete, for starters,
Even great players like jahangir khan and wasim akram say that our problem is that we settle for too less as a nation. Why should we settle for just participating why not win the competition.
A nation should be ashamed of these results rather than to be proud. We can only blame , blame our govt for not supporting, blame our society for not supporting , blame our culture, and so on. When nations.blame they do not succeed..
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Come on, she is a young girl and this exposure should help her improve
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She didn’t finish last rather she is the world’d 35th best swimmer !
Thats an honor in itself for a Nation who has very less things to be proud of in this world.
Well Done !
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Only the FOOTBALLS from Pakistan will make it to the Finals!!!
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She is someone to be proud of.
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@kumail:
And then lose just like our CRICKETERS.
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The writer should get the fact straight. Israr’s heat will be on Tuesday
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I am really dismayed by some of the comments here! Anum is a brave and talented girl! She is brave because she is dedicated to her sport and is continuing with it despite all these ridiculous comments in her own country and talented because she is only 15 yrs old and has qualified for the Olympics!
To all the people who are critizing her dress, well what do you think she should wear, when she is swimming? Maybe she has not been given enough financial backing to invest in a full swimming body suit? Have you ever thought about that? Also, to the people who are saying she does not deserve the hype for failing to qualify for the next round. May I ask what you have done for Pakistan? Have you ever dedicated your self to anything other then critizing other people?
I think we as a people need to stop critizing others, be they the next door neighbor, or people who represent the country on an international stage. We should concentrate on being the best we can be and stop critizing other people.
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@Awans:
There is no point in supporting low standards.
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Anam you are a star, be proud because you make us feel proud!!!Pakistan zindabad
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@SalSal:
Another 15 Year old one gold in swimming. Keep coming up with lame excuses of her being a 15YO.
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