Pakistani skier in Beijing fails to complete race

Karim, participating for the third time in Winter Games, was taking part in slalom event

KARACHI:

Pakistan's campaign at the Winter Olympics in Beijing came to end as lone athlete Muhammad Karim began his slalom event at the Ice River Course on Wednesday morning, but did not finish the race.

The total of 88 athletes started the event in the first run, while 34 did not finish the race, one got disqualified and another did not start at all.

The south Asian region was only represented through Karim from Pakistan and India's Arif Khan, who also did not cross the finish line.

This was Karim's third appearance at the Olympics, he made his debut in 2014, then went to 2018 Winter Games and now to China.

He is only the second Pakistani to compete in the Winter Olympics, first being Muhammad Abbas in 2010 as Pakistan made debut in Winter Games.

Earlier, Karim said that he is hopeful for the future and there will be more athletes from Pakistan at the Olympics.

"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, who was the sole athlete in Beijing as the female skier had to pull out of her event due to injury.

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.”