How does one become an Olympian? Dubai-based Pakistani swimmer has the answer

Muhammad Ahmed Durrani will be competing at the Paris Olympics this year

Rituraj Borkakoty

Published: Thu 18 Jul 2024, 5:26 PM

When Aasif Durani left Karachi in 2007 to join his uncle’s timber business in Dubai, nurturing a future Olympian was beyond his wildest dreams.

“I have never done any serious sports in my life. We have no proper sporting background in the family,” the Pakistani expat said.

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And yet, seeing his two-year-old son, Muhammad Ahmed Durrani, bursting with energy, his uncle asked him to put the toddler into some sports activity.

That’s when Durani took Ahmed to a swimming pool to see if his son liked the water.

Ahmed loved it.

“He was such a restless kid, but in the pool, he was always calm and composed,” Durani recalled.

Ahmed’s love for water soon became a beautiful obsession as he began breaking records in school swimming competitions.

His talent to swim fast brought medals and accolades, even earning him a place in the Pakistan team for the Asian Games last year in China.

If the the continental showpiece was the breakthrough, the 18-year-old has now reached the pinnacle of his young career, punching his ticket to the Paris Olympics (July 26-August 11) where he will defend the Pakistan colours in the 200-metre freestyle event.

Ahmed says he feels incredibly blessed to have the unwavering support from his family — his father who would leave no stone unturned to give him everything he needs to be an elite athlete, and his mother who would wake up at 4 every morning to drive him to the pool for training; where she would wait outside until the end of training sessions to drive him home.

In an interview with City Times, Ahmed also opened up about the role Dubai has played in creating a road map for the Olympics.

Your father narrated the story about how you first got into a swimming pool. But when did it become a serious activity for you, in terms of swimming to compete?

I used to pick those coins at the bottom of the pool, so the competition was how many you could pick. That was my earliest memory of being in a competition. Whoever got the most coins would win. So the transition from collecting coins to finishing first in the pool races happened in the space of a few years.

There is a lot to learn from an athlete like you for youngsters who would be keen to know your training schedule. You can tell them what it takes to be an Olympian. And how you have maintained the balance between swimming and academics…

There is a lot of hard work and dedication. You know I have to be there at the pool by 4:45 in the morning. We swim until 6:45 and then we change from 6:45 pm to 7. It takes around 30 minutes to get to school, I go to the Dubai English Speaking College. I reach home around 3:45 pm, eat for 15-20 minutes, then I go for my second training session in the evening which lasts until 7:30 pm, and I reach home around 8 pm, and have a quick dinner at 8:30 pm. Then I finish my studies and go to bed around 10:30 in the night.

That’s extremely tough…

Yes, I have been doing it for more than two years now.

Obviously, you have trained so hard. But when did you realise that you have a shot at qualifying for the 2024 Olympics?

I think it started at the Nationals in Pakistan. When I competed there, the performances were pretty good and I was like, okay I have a shot at qualifying for Paris’.

And you qualified for Paris only last month. How did you get the big news?

It was my dad. There were a lot of Pakistani swimmers across the globe competing in qualifiers. So there were different time zones. There was another swimmer fighting for the same place, he was competing in Canada. It was the deadline day, so we were like either I was in or out. If he gets a better timing, he qualifies. So we were in Dubai, waiting for the result. We had to wait until the wee hours of the night because he was swimming in Canada. I was very nervous, I think it was around 3 am Dubai time when my dad finally broke the news that I made it. I was jumping around for about 20 minutes.

So you had to stay awake to know whether you were going to Paris…

Yes, the other swimmer is a former Olympian with a good record. So we were nervous. There was a place at the Olympics at stake. We were on the edge.

Now that you have made it, what’s your goal in Paris?

I want to break the national record in 200 m freestyle. I want to put up a performance that shows that Pakistan is a country that can compete on the big stage. I want to create a record for Pakistan that is unparalleled. Besides all that I just want to be a good ambassador for the country and make Pakistan proud.

That reminds us of Arshad Nadeem, the javelin thrower, who had made Pakistan incredibly proud. He came close to winning a medal at the Tokyo Olympics. He eventually won a gold at the Commonwealth Games and a silver at the World Championships, a humongous achievement considering the lack of top-class facilities for Olympic athletes in cricket-obsessed Pakistan. His journey from a small town in the Punjab province to the world stage must have inspired you as a Pakistani athlete…

He is the biggest inspiration for me. He is among the front-runners for the Olympic gold in Paris. His story is a big motivation, how he overcame all the odds. He has been competing at the highest level for many years now. And I just hope that he brings home the gold medal this time. I met him at the Asian Games last year in China. I had an opportunity to chat with him for a while. He is such a humble person. I am going to meet him again now in Paris. I am so excited.

Arshad has emerged despite the system in Pakistan where poor facilities and lack of funds have remained a big issue for athletes. Given this backdrop, do you feel lucky that you live in Dubai and get to train in some world-class pools in this city, giving you the ideal chance to get to an event like the Olympics?

Absolutely. I would not be in this position today without Dubai and without the support I have received from all the federations, the coaches and my schools (Jumeirah Primary School and Dubai English Speaking College). The UAE federations continue to host incredible competitions every year, which has given me the ideal opportunity to develop my swimming skills. As you know Dubai is amazing in a lot of aspects, that includes facilities for elite swimmers too. The world’s best pool now is the Hamdan Sports Complex. I have seen some of the best pools in the world in China, Malaysia, and Singapore, but I haven’t seen a pool that compares to the one at Hamdan Sports Complex. Hopefully, Paris can show me something new, but of all the cities I have seen as of now, Dubai is at the top.

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