Opinion | Pakistan’s 7-man Olympic team reflects its woeful lack of youth investment

Looking at Pakistan’s contingent at the 2024 Paris Olympics, you can imagine how the cards are stacked against its athletes. Of the seven athletes, three were wildcard entrants through the Universality Place concession given to countries that traditionally have a low representation at the Olympics.

While we can applaud these Olympians, we must note that their achievements reflect the funding and training opportunities they were able to secure without government assistance. A sports culture in which athletes must pay for facilities and training out of their own pockets is not a culture worthy of respect or encouragement.

Despite failing to qualify for the Olympics through the qualifying events, Jehanara Nabi finished 26th out of 30 in the 200m freestyle heats – a considerable performance for a wildcard entry. Ahmed Durrani, the other swimming wildcard, also failed to make it through to the main rounds with a 25th place finish in the men’s 200m freestyle. Meanwhile, athletics wildcard Faiqa Riaz finished 6th in the second heat of the women’s 100m sprint.

In total, three Pakistani shooters qualified for the Olympics based on their results in qualifying tournaments. Gulfam Joseph and Kishmala Talat failed to reach the finals in their respective events, as did Ghulam Mustafa Bashir. At the time of writing, javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem remains Pakistan’s last hope in Paris.

The small size of the contingent has attracted attention, with one Olympic commentator emphatically pointing out the small number of athletes from this country of “more than 240 million people”. The comment was widely criticised, but could only be considered offensive because it was true.

With only seven athletes representing the country, how does this reflect the state of sports in Pakistan? Apart from cricket, which has a huge following, the government has failed to adequately fund sports.

Pakistan has not qualified for the Olympics for hockey since 2012, a staggering fact considering that they were considered an unbeatable team for decades. All the reasons behind this abysmal representation point to the lack of organization, facilities, coaching, funding and focus on sports in the country.

Many sports require large-scale infrastructure such as well-maintained stadiums. With load shedding and rising electricity costs, there is a lack of training facilities for athletes. To perform well on the international stage, better organization and management is required. A regular schedule of local tournaments, competitions, trials and training camps is necessary for athletes to be in shape for international competitions. Unfortunately, the state of sports governance in Pakistan is no different from its political governance.

Sports governing bodies in Pakistan are plagued by endless infighting and factionalism, no doubt fuelled by the opportunity to embezzle sports funds for personal use. This exposes athletes to constant mismanagement and confusion regarding competitions and a lack of notification of events and training.

Driven by passion and a goal to succeed, many athletes are forced to finance their training by finding sponsors, or even by their families. Many in remote and rural parts of the country find innovative ways to train when gyms, equipment, facilities and opportunities are unavailable or non-existent.

Most sports in Pakistan are governed by the sports council. The facilities are under the government’s mandate, but without proper governance and a dismal portion of the national budget allocated to sports, the consequences are visible to the world at events like the Olympics.

The Pakistani government and its priorities will be on full display during the Paris Olympics. The government should be ashamed and make changes quickly if it wants to gain any respect on the international stage. Sport is supposed to be the great equalizer. But when your access and ability to perform is based on the social and economic demographic you belong to, then the purpose of sport is lost.

Humaira Saeed is a writer and journalist. She tweets at @SaysHumaira