Women weightlifters — defying stereotypes

Rabia, Saniha ply their trade in sport generally associated with men in Pakistan

KARACHI: “Just getting a degree doesn’t mean anything, it’s earning respect that matters,” said 18-year-old Rabia Shahzad, an outstanding student at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) who dreams of representing Pakistan at the next Asian Games, and that too in a discipline which many have long associated with men especially in Pakistan — weightlifting.

Women’s weightlifting has been around for less than a decade and Shahzad is going to make her debut at the third National Women’s Weightlifting Championship that will be starting on January 3.

For Shahzad, who started off as a powerlifter before making her way into weightlifting, the goal is to repeat her feat from last year where she won a gold medal at the National Women’s Powerlifting Championship and followed that up with another gold on her international debut in Singapore.

Despite hailing from a family with a sporting background — her father is a rower while her sister plays badminton — Shahzad, who started off as a rower and swimmer herself, had to convince her family to let her switch sports.

“I was a rower before but then I decided to get into weightlifting; indoor rowing tends to become extremely boring. I only found out about the Pakistan Weightlifting Federation (PWF) last year and I feel that women have a lot of scope in this sport. I think I’ve achieved more in weightlifting than any other sport I picked. Now the aim is to train for the next Asian Games and take regional titles before aiming for the Olympics,” said the ambitious youngster.

Shahzad further revealed that initially many people, including her family, doubted her ability to excel in the sport. However, that changed when she won her first gold medal. “All the debate about whether I should continue with weightlifting lulled after I won my first gold medal; that was my debut and it was just amazing.”

Shahzad, who will become the first girl from Sindh to compete at the National Women’s Weightlifting Championship, says she travels to Lahore very often to train with PWF Vice-President Rashed Malik as she couldn’t find any trainers or coaches who train women in weightlifting in Karachi.

“When I initially began powerlifting, people told me that I shouldn’t do it on my own. I therefore approached the PWF and they have been extremely helpful. I travel to Lahore quite often and when I don’t, I practice with my own weights as many women’s gyms don’t have heavy weights since they don’t think that women would use them,” she added.

‘Making the family proud’

Another weightlifter, Lahore’s Saniha Ghafoor, has only one aim in life; featuring at the Olympics and making her family proud.

Among those she wants to impress are her father, Abdul Ghafoor, the 1970 Commonwealth Games silver-medallist, and her brothers, who are also international weightlifters

The 20-year-old draws inspiration from her own family where in addition to her father and her brothers, her paternal uncle, Muhammad Manzoor, is also a weightlifter and has represented Pakistan at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.

“I grew up watching my father, my brothers and my uncle. I’m the youngest among my siblings and my mother encouraged me to pursue weightlifting professionally,” said the 2016 South Asian Games 58kg participant. “As far as I know, I have to improve my skills and ultimately become the first woman from our country to compete at the Olympics in weightlifting. I feel I owe this to my family and I’m very passionate about achieving this goal.”

Saniha began weightlifting four years ago; before that she used to practice judo regularly and that helped her adjust to the demanding routine of a weightlifter.

“I used to train for judo but weightlifting was always something I wanted to pursue. By the time I was 16, I had made up my mind that I’ll do whatever it takes to become a weightlifting champion,” said Saniha.

She feels that she needs to lift 60kg in snatch and 80kg in clean and jerk to win a medal at the upcoming national championship’s 58kg event where she will be representing Pakistan Railways.

Similarly, other weightlifters like Neelum Riaz (63kg), Saima Shahzad (52kg), Cybil Sohail (48kg) and Rabia Razzak, Nadia Maqsood and Saira Bano (super heavyweight category) will be participating in the championship as the elite athletes in 10 different teams.