Today's Edition
KUUMAR SHYAM (ABU DHABI)
In the 53 years of existence of the UAE, it has been proven that anything can be possible and so it may not be preposterous to look forward to looking at a future Olympian and sporting athlete on a snowboard from the land of the sand dunes.
Amenah Al Muhairi is the first Emirati female athlete to represent the UAE in snowboarding when she qualified for the Youth Winter Olympic Games which was held in Gangwon in January this year.
Just 15, her presence at the South Korean city itself introduced many firsts for the UAE and a major milestone after casually starting off at Ski Dubai as a seven-year-old and having spent the next five years being involved at a very casual level just like millions of children do.
Born to an Emirati father and an Australian mother, she showed promise ever since her first ever taste of the sport during a trip to Bosnia, a travel trip purposefully planned by mother Maya for Amenah and her siblings, having got some initiation with skiing at home with Ski Dubai's indoor slopes.
"Amenah is the third of my four children. The intent was to take them out and see how they receive it and I wasn't sure who, but it turned out to be Amenah who just fell in love with the sport," recalls her mother as both sat down for an online interaction with Aletihad.
In the back of Mrs Al Muhairi's mind as she completed 10 years of marriage to a former handball player and coach with Shabab Al Ahli, she had the urge to test the children's aptitude to her side of their sporting genes; Amenah's grandfather was into skiing.
"In Amenah's case it became one piece of wood [snowboarding] instead of two [in ski], and that was fine by me as long as she enjoyed it," she said.
Even the instructor in Bosnia was impressed when Amenah was ready to do a 'Chairlift' after just one session when others usually take at least four or five sessions to reach there.
From age eight and for about five years, things meandered but never got off the rails before a timely intervention of destiny happened. She enrolled for a two-week camp on freestyle snowboarding. Not only she got more hooked, line and sinker, she found an able ally in the coach who has been responsible to take her to another level.
In the past two years since, her talent and honing skills have been sharpened like never before. The raise in intensity can be gauged by the fact that she practised through and approached Gangwon – her career highlight early this year – despite a tailbone fracture.
It was also a case of stepping onto the big stage and hence most challenging before she steps up next for the Asia Winter Games which will take place in Harbin, China in February. "It was an incredible feeling. The whole trip was amazing for me.
"I have competed in other tournaments before but the Youth Olympics, even though it was the most recent one, it got me super hyped because I realised this is what I want to do. I love being under pressure; I love being under the spotlight; being the first in the UAE to do something like this and have my name up there, I so enjoyed it and now I cannot wait for the Asia Games so I can make it even better.
"When I started I was the only girl, but now there is a proper community and even the boys there have joined and become a strong community," says Amenah.
At home, she trains indoors at Ski Dubai, but travels almost every other month to train or compete on real snow. "I do freestyle snowboarding and that comes in two parts. It's Big Air, which are jumps, and Slopestyle, which are rails, and mixed in with jumps," she said.
The Grade 11 student gets support from her school to pursue her dreams, says Amenah, as she mentions how her next two years are important as she contemplates her academic future. "It will be something brain-related," she reckons.
Meanwhile the nation can hope her balance on the snowboard with her legs will do the talking in the next two years with the Asia Winter Games and the 2026 Milan Winter Olympic Games. "It would be a dream come true to compete at the Olympic level amongst the world's best athletes," she said.
