How former national women hockey captain's Olympic dream came true

Rabia is currently volunteering in Rio Olympics

KARACHI: While former national women’s hockey captain Rabia Qadir was never able to realise her dream of featuring at an Olympic event, she is fulfilling her ambition of being part of the Games by volunteering at this year’s mega event in Rio.

Rabia, who began her hockey career in 2003 and represented Pakistan at the Asian Games qualifiers in Malaysia, lamented the state of women’s hockey in Pakistan, and opined that volunteering was the only way for a female hockey player to be part of the Games.

“I knew it before and I know it now as well that it would take the Pakistan women’s hockey decades to be in a position to qualify for the Olympics, therefore for me to be able to fulfil my dream [of being part of the Games], this was the only way,” Rabia told The Express Tribune from Brazil as soon as she got done with her volunteer duties for the day at the rugby stadium at Olympics.

The 31-year-old, who applied for the volunteer programme through the International Olympic Committee’s global portal in 2013, lamented Pakistan’s poor run at this year’s Olympics. “It’s sad because by the time I got some free time from daily duties, I realised all the Pakistani athletes were already out of the events.”

She further added that sporting federations in Pakistan lack ambition and view the Olympics as a vacation for themselves.

“Our sports culture is twisted; and now seeing top athletes here [at Rio], I strongly feel we need to change the system,” she rued. “Our Pakistani federations only count on wild card entries. That’s not enough.”

Rabia also revealed that the threat of the Zika virus made her think twice about travelling to Brazil but, in the end, she decided to go. “If it wasn’t now, I don’t think I would’ve ever tried again. I was a little scared, of course. But there are safe zones here and we’ve been given these lotions to apply at all times. So it’s not that bad,” she concluded.

Rabia saw the opening ceremony while fulfilling her duties on August 5 and feels that the experience will stay with her for life, but she may not be attending the closing ceremony as she will be returning by August 22.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2016.

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