#360view: Right call for Al Bedwawi to be UAE's Rio flag bearer

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  • Teenager Al Bedwawi will be hoping to star in Rio.

    Less than two weeks ahead of the Games’ kick-off in Brazil, the UAE National Olympic Committee (NOC) has finally announced the 13-strong squad that will be representing the Emirates at the Rio Olympics.

    While this is not the biggest athletes’ delegation sent from the UAE to the Olympics, it is worth noting that 18 of the 28 that went to London four years ago were footballers. So in terms of participation in individual sports, this is the largest Emirati contingent headed to the Games since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

    Four of the 13 flying to Rio are females, with teenage swimmer Nada Al Bedwawi chosen as flag-bearer. Al Bedwawi is the youngest of the squad and will become the first-ever female swimmer to represent the UAE at the Olympics.

    The NOC’s decision to choose the 18-year-old as the flag-bearer was questioned by an Arab reporter at the press conference, as he claimed she is not up for the “responsibility” but I personally believe it is a great move by sports officials in the country.

    The UAE remains a relatively young nation when it comes to the Olympics, having competed for the first time as recently as the Los Angeles 1984 Games.

    A quick look at the 13 participants heading to Rio shows that only two of them have competed at the Games before – veteran shooter Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum, who will be contesting his fifth consecutive Olympics, and naturalised Ethiopian Betlhem Belayneh, who participated in London 2012.

    The remaining 11 are all first-time Olympians, many of which are young, up-and-comers.

    Considering Sheikh Saeed has carried the UAE flag in the opening ceremony on more than one occasion in his past appearances, it is a great initiative from the NOC to give that honour to a young female, who is blazing a trail for the Emirates in the swimming pool and can inspire other girls and boys from her generation to follow suit.

    Being the first at something is never easy, and Al Bedwawi is taking on that role with great courage, so assuming she is not “up for the responsibility” to carry the UAE flag in Rio is a baseless and unacceptable verdict.

    It’s refreshing to see such a progressive decision from the NOC and hopefully it will lay the ground for more such actions in the future.

    It was disappointing however to attend the official NOC announcement of the UAE Olympics delegation at a press conference that had zero athletes in attendance.

    There always seems to be a great disconnect between the NOC and the competitors and it was evident by their absence.

    While some of the athletes have already flown to Rio, many of them are still in the UAE and it’s only natural that they face the media before they go off to what is the biggest sporting event on the planet. Shielding them from the media is doing them no favours as no professional athlete can survive in sport without dealing with journalists and TV cameras.

    Another surprise at the announcement was the last-minute replacement of hammer thrower Mohamed Omar Al Khatib with middle distance runner Saud Al Zaabi. Al Khatib was initially meant to compete with a wildcard but the UAE Athletics Federation was told that the hammer throw event was overcrowded with entries and that the IOC and IAAF would rather give the Emirates an invite for a track event instead.

    Al Zaabi was the lucky recipient of the wildcard, and even though he is a specialist in the 800m, he will be competing in the 1,500m, which is probably the event with more slots available for invitees.

    While it will undoubtedly be an incredible opportunity and experience for Al Zaabi, it’s worth noting that he has never represented the UAE in a non-police-related international meet before – not at the GCC level, not at the Arab level and not at the Asian level.

    Seeing him flung straight to the Olympics, to compete at a level that is so alien to him, is a prime example of why the wildcard system at the Games needs tweaking.

    It is also an indication of how ill-prepared the federation was here, that when a slot opened for a middle distance runner, there were no athletes in the pipeline with any shred of experience ready to take that opportunity. Here’s hoping Al Zaabi makes the most out of it.

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