Why weightlifting? It is one of the first questions that Aisha Al Balooshi usually faces in most social or professional gatherings, and it is not too difficult to understand why.
“People keep asking me that question because I am a Muslim and an Arab,” said a dismissive Al Balooshi, the youngest of 12 siblings, as she answered that question yet again, moments after being announced as the Emirates Weightlifting Federation’s pick for the UAE’s lone qualifying spot in the women’s weightlifting competition at the Rio Olympics.
Al Balooshi, now 24, was asked that question when she first traded in her volleyball and running boots for the barbells on a whim back in 2009 as well, and they have never stopped since. Even her parents did not seem very convinced at the start.
“No one from my family agreed because they believed weightlifting was for the boys,” said Al Balooshi, who will be competing in the 58kg class at the Rio Olympics and will open her campaign on August 8. “They were also worried I would get hurt, but then their views changed once I started winning medals in competitions.
“Of course, the other people have not stopped asking that question.
“They will keep saying, ‘what is she doing in weightlifting’, but it does not matter. Alhamdullilah, I have represented the UAE in a good way until now and I hope I can keep doing it.”
Al Balooshi has done well, indeed, right from her first international competition, the 2009 Asian Youth and Junior Championship in Dubai.
Since then, Al Balooshi has collected 13 gold medals, six silvers and four bronzes in various international competitions, including two golds and a silver at last December’s Arab Championships in Egypt.
Meet the men and women representing the UAE at the Olympics
Given her experience, Al Balooshi was obviously the first choice when the International Weightlifting Federation decided to award UAE a spot in the women’s weightlifting section at Rio Olympics following their executive meeting in Georgia last month.
“We are really proud of all the seven members of the UAE team who took part in the Asian Championships in Tashkent and created this opportunity for us,” said Sheikh Sultan bin Mejren, president of the Emirates Weightlifting Federation (EWF).
“Aisha, of course, got the highest score in qualifying and so we have chosen her.
“She has represented the UAE at a lot of competitions in this region, Asia and the world, and has done really well. We are proud of her and we are proud to see the unity in this team.
“Honestly, our weightlifters deserve a real salute because we do not even have a proper training base and yet they have qualified for a second successive Olympics. This qualification is a testimony to their spirit and proof of their desire to excel for the UAE.
“Hopefully, this qualification will help change perspectives and we will get greater support because, and I am proud to say this, we are providing results though our budget is a fraction of what some of the other federations get.”
The UAE men’s and women’s weightlifting squad share a temporary training base at the Salah Al Deen Sports club in Al Mamzar, with very basic facilities.
“Both the men’s and women’s team train at the same venue, so we try to split them up and try to give each team three hours a day, five days a week,” said Jassim Al Awadhi, the finance director and assistant technical director at EWF.
Close to a dozen women train there every week day and, often, Al Balooshi, who lives in Dubai’s Al Barsha district, takes the responsibility of picking her teammates from home and dropping them back after the training.
“She is the leader of the team and she leads by example,” said Bin Mejren. “She is always there on time for every training session, she is always taking care of the other members of the team, especially the younger ones.
“If any of the girls don’t have a drive to bring them to the training, she goes personally to pick them up and then drops them back after the training.
“So a girl who is doing so much for the sport, she deserves a chance to go the Olympics.”
Al Balooshi is, of course, thrilled to be making the trip to Rio. The Olympics have been a collective dream for her and her mother, who Al Balooshi describes as her staunchest supporter. She lost her father a few years back.
“This is what we have lived for and fought for,” said Al Balooshi, who is camping in Georgia now for her final preparations for the Games.
“All the struggle, the pain and the injuries seem worth it now. I hope this will inspire the other girls as well to take up sport - any sport, not just weightlifting. Nobody in my family ever tried weightlifting, but here I am. It shows anything is possible.”
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Indeed, anything is possible.
Three months ago, nobody would have even dreamt of Al Balooshi going to the Rio Olympics as the Emirati had injured her neck trying to lift 94kgs at the Asian Championships in Tashkent in April.
Al Balooshi had suffered neck injuries in the past as well, but this one had come at a really bad time.
Doctors advised her to go easy and not lift any weights for six months at least, but a determined Al Balooshi was back in training after three weeks.
“If we had to nominate our representative after Tashkent, she would not have been the one to get picked,” Bin Mejren said.
“Fortunately, this delay has allowed us to pick her because the coach says she is fine now and can participate.”
The spotlight is fixed firmly on her then, but Al Balooshi refuses to take any credit for her qualification, reminding everyone that it is a team effort which has earned the UAE a qualification berth.
“This is the second time we have qualified for the Olympics in succession, so it’s not just about me – it’s about the whole team,” said Al Balooshi, who was also a member of the UAE team that helped send Khadija Mohammed to the 2012 London Olympics.
“Yes, I am their leader. I am their mother, I am their sister; I am everything for them. But they are everything for me as well, they mean as much to me as I mean to them.
“Before any competition, we tell each other only one thing: ‘one soul, one team’.”
With that motto and the well wishes of her family and teammates, and indeed the whole country, Al Balooshi ventures out, hoping the Rio Olympics will finally bring those “why weightlifting?” queries to an end.
arizvi@thenational.ae
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Scoreline
Arsenal 0 Manchester City 3
- Agüero 18'
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Starring: Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, Jared Leto
Four stars
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
MATCH INFO
Final: England v South Africa, Saturday, 1pm
Five expert hiking tips
Always check the weather forecast before setting off
Make sure you have plenty of water
Set off early to avoid sudden weather changes in the afternoon
Wear appropriate clothing and footwear
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The figures behind the event
1) More than 300 in-house cleaning crew
2) 165 staff assigned to sanitise public areas throughout the show
3) 1,000 social distancing stickers
4) 809 hand sanitiser dispensers placed throughout the venue
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Transmission: ten-speed
Power: 420bhp
Torque: 624Nm
Price: Dh325,125
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Honeymoonish
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Rashford 36')
Liverpool 1 (Lallana 84')
Man of the match: Marcus Rashford (Manchester United)
Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.
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Lightweight (female)
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Bantamweight
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Welterweight
Amir Boureslan bt Mahmoud Zanouny
Featherweight
Mohammed Al Katheeri bt Abrorbek Madaminbekov
Super featherweight
Ibrahem Bilal bt Emad Arafa
Middleweight
Ahmed Abdolaziz bt Imad Essassi
Bantamweight (female)
Ilham Bourakkadi bt Milena Martinou
Welterweight
Mohamed Mardi bt Noureddine El Agouti
Middleweight
Nabil Ouach bt Ymad Atrous
Welterweight
Nouredine Samir bt Marlon Ribeiro
Super welterweight
Brad Stanton bt Mohamed El Boukhari
In 2018, the ICRC received 27,756 trace requests in the Middle East alone. The global total was 45,507.
There are 139,018 global trace requests that have not been resolved yet, 55,672 of these are in the Middle East region.
More than 540,000 individuals approached the ICRC in the Middle East asking to be reunited with missing loved ones in 2018.
The total figure for the entire world was 654,000 in 2018.
England's all-time record goalscorers:
Wayne Rooney 53
Bobby Charlton 49
Gary Lineker 48
Jimmy Greaves 44
Michael Owen 40
Tom Finney 30
Nat Lofthouse 30
Alan Shearer 30
Viv Woodward 29
Frank Lampard 29
Yahya Al Ghassani's bio
Date of birth: April 18, 1998
Playing position: Winger
Clubs: 2015-2017 – Al Ahli Dubai; March-June 2018 – Paris FC; August – Al Wahda
