Pakistan at Winter Olympics: Karim requests prayers before event

“I just want to request for the prayers for me. I have seen the world and I feel in my country we need to value the talent, be fair and boost the deserving talent in every field. I’m not just talking about skiing, I’m talking about every possible field. This is something that we miss in our nation, we need to cheer up the deserving talent,” Muhammad Karim exclaims from Beijing as he prepares for his third appearance in the Winter Olympics.

At just 26, the Naltar-based athlete has made Pakistan proud to become only the second skier competing in the Winter Olympics.

Karim is the Pakistan Air Force Skiing School alumni, which is also known as Shah Khan School, and he has been gunning to be make Pakistan proud internationally.

He represented Pakistan in 2014 for the first time at the Winter Olympics and made his way to the 2018 Olympics as well. Now, he feels that the third time is about bettering the performance.

Karim’s event will be slalom this time at the Ice River slope that has the vertical drop of 424m (1,391 ft) in Yanqing District, a speeding event that is about technique and posture, but the youngster feels he has gained the confidence through time.

“I am confident. I’d want to finish the event well,” Karim told The Express Tribune. “It is tough and a technical challenge because as we saw in the giant slalom event too, more than half of the athletes couldn’t finish the race. We do have a target in mind before going into the competition but it depends on the moment and the conditions.”

Karim competed in the giant Slalom event on his debut in 2014 Sochi where his result was 3:27.410, but then went on to compete in giant slalom and slalom in 2018 Pyeongchang. He finished giant slalom in 2:54.040 but did not finish in the slalom event.

Karim had also represented Pakistan in 2017 Asian Winter Games along with World Military Games and he feels that the growth is coming race after race.

“Skiing is a marathon”

For Karim being in the skiing world for the most part of his life, growing up in the community and village that is rich in talent, his older brother being a skier as well, and a family that values sports, he feels that no athlete can be judged off of their one or two years of performance.

“Skiing is a marathon. Building a career takes time since skiing is a seasonal sport too. Then there is the technical aspect of the sport, along with it being expensive as well. So there is availability of infrastructure, the expenses and then we need to compete continuously in 70 to 40 races or even 80 races per year.

“I trained in Europe this time before coming to China and the training has been good,” assured Karim.

He trained in Italy for 45 days and also competed there, along with races in Lebanon and Turkey throughout the time that the International Ski Federation (FIS) had allotted for the skiers to collect points.

“During the training through the last few months it has been back-to-back races with a gap of two days and that had been the key. Other than that I trained hard physically to make sure I’m in my best form,” said Karim as he thanked the PPAKF and the Pakistan Winter Sports Federation (WSF) that assured competitions for Karim.

He said that his favourite race throughout this time was in Malam Jabba where he won the giant slalom event FIS race in 2020.

Covid-19 challenges

Karim said that although he was not as badly affected by Covid-19 as his village in Naltar is a far-flung area with very small population, the major barriers came in the form of missing international races and opportunities.

“I had good training and physical exercise at home, but I did miss an opportunity to go to Italy where around 40-60 skiers were training and competing, but other than that I feel I did everything right,” said Karim.

Meanwhile Karim is impressed with the Olympics and he feels that China has done a good job when it comes to organising it in the middle of a global pandemic.

On his third attempt at the Olympics, however, Karim is going with more experience and he feels good about the conditions in Beijing.

“I can say that the Beijing Games are definitely my favourite so far. The slope is very good, everything is extremely well organised, the environment is very relaxed and friendly as I have my meals in the hall with other athletes,” said Karim.

Exemplary journey for all

Karim’s journey is an allegory for the growth of Pakistan winter sports as well.

He thanks PAF for the role it played and finally having a federation that can cater to not just alpine skiing, but expand to other disciplines as well including ice hockey, snow-boarding and cross-country skiing too.

“When I was younger there were 23-32 children in the Naltar ski school and then the number began to increase. The PAF have worked very diligently to develop the sport and now we have the Winter Sports Federation and winter sports is not just limited to Naltar. It is expanding to Gilgit Baltistan’s areas in Rattu, Malam Jabba, Kashmir. The talent is well distributed so this is a great sign. We have had a lot of improvement on our slopes in Pakistan. We now have snow-making machines too. Things are changing,” said Karim, who is hoping for the participation of Pakistanis to increase in winter sports and Olympics in the future.

“Of course we’ll see the increase in numbers. More talent is being groomed and coming forward from so many areas. We’ll see more Pakistani athletes at the Winter Olympics in the future,” said Karim, although he is now a sole athlete in Beijing as the female skier had to pull out of her event due to injury.

Karim’s brother Sher Afzal, 42, feels that Karim will make the country proud and back home everyone is cheering.

“I trained Karim for 70 to 80 per cent of the time, but he trained well in Italy. We can definitely beat India too, if Arif is in the competition for slalom. But we just need to focus, and so far Karim has worked hard for this,” said the national coach.

Karim has been the flag bearer at the opening ceremony as well for Pakistan, and now through his performance he is looking to make the difference.

Pakistan made debut at the Winter Olympics in 2010 with Muhammad Abbas being the first winter Olympian.