The UAE Paralympic team may have just missed out on a medal at the Paris Games, for the first time since Beijing in 2008, but there were plenty of positives to take from their performances.
While Maryam Al Zeyoudi and Mohammed Khamis Khalaf made valiant attempts to clinch a medal, they both had to settle for fourth places in the women’s shot put and men’s powerlifting, respectively, on the penultimate day on Saturday.
That was as close as the UAE got after shooter Abdullah Sultan Al Aryani took sixth spot in the 50m Rifle 3 placings and Mohammed Othman finished fifth in the 100m wheelchair T34 after qualifying for the finals.
Al Aryani is one of the nation's most successful Paralympians with two golds and three silvers across three Games. Khalaf has previously won two golds and a silver, also being the first Emirati to win Paralympic gold at Athens in 2004.
Al Aryani, 54, and Khalaf, 55, are Emirati Paralympic legends but they are not getting any younger. There are encouraging signs for the future, though; the brightest star to emerge for the UAE in Paris is 20-year-old Othman, the youngest athlete in the 14-member squad.
Making his Paralympic debut, he clinched a place in the T34 100m final before finishing fifth. He placed eighth in the 800m event two days later. For him, Paris was a platform to build on for Los Angeles in 2028.
“To be at the Paralympics for the first time itself was great. The experience was amazing. I’m taking home a bag full of positives with me and then build on it to be ready for LA in four years,” Othman said.
“I spoke to many athletes and shared the experiences with each other, and I must say the training facilities, training programmes and encouragement provided by our federation are really the best.
“It’s for us as athletes to commit to the training and work hard to achieve our own goals. All of us at Paris have done their best but we still fell short of taking home a medal. That’s how hard it is when you compete with the best in the world.
“We want to get back and get on with the work and preparation. There are many competitions planned including the 2026 Asian Games [in Aichi-Nagoya] and the Paralympic Games in LA two years later. My goal is to prepare from the moment I’m back at home.”
Al Zeyoudi improved from her last Paralympics in Tokyo and will now be among the more experienced Paralympians in training.
She produced a regional best throw of 8.62m and that effort was beaten only by a Paralympic record throw (9.10m) from Lara Baars of the Netherlands as well as season's best efforts from Poland's Renata Sliwinska (9.00m) and Tunisia's Raja Jebali (8.66m).
Dhaiban Al Muhairi, head of the mission and general secretary of the National Paralympic Committee, insisted participation was paramount rather than the medals.
“If we can win medals, they are welcome and we’ll celebrate, but to keep the People of Determination active and reach Paralympic levels is more satisfying for us,” he said of their participation in Paris.
“We first participated in the Paralympics [1992 Barcelona] with a single participant and to see it grow is an objective that has gratified us as a nation. Our motto is to keep supporting our Paralympians regardless of the results.”
