Pakistan's LA Olympics 2028 plans in the doldrums

Almost a year has passed since the Paris Games but no plans for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics have been made by the state, which is the sole financier of the national athletes.

Due to absence of support from the corporate sector, national federations mostly depend on the state funding for holding camp and providing exposure to their promising athletes.

Federations write to the state for training camps but the latter starts asking about results and there the process stops. Mostly the officials sitting in the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) does not know how to back athletes in the long-term plans which is the only way to enable them to not only improve their world rankings but also help them to qualify for the Olympics. It’s not an overnight process.

In some disciplines, no camps have been seen for the last two years.

There is a lot of potential in Pakistan, especially in individual sports, in which the country can qualify for the Los Angeles Games.

Barring Olympic gold medalist Arshad Nadeem, who is an automatic choice, PSB will need to back potential sports including shooting, squash, wrestling, weightlifting, taekwondo, boxing, hockey, athletics, judo, baseball and volleyball so that the nation could make the cut for the Olympics. T20 cricket is also in the Olympics this time and Pakistan may feature.

France-based equestrian Usman Khan also deserves to be backed as he can surely qualify for the Log Angeles Games, the way he had done twice previously, but unfortunately due to serious casualties he could not compete in the world’s most prestigious extravaganza.

The PSB should also note that only camps at home will not be of any advantage unless the athletes of the contact sports are sent abroad consistently for training. Unless the athletes train with tough sparring partners they will not improve. Training at home will not develop Pakistan’s top athletes in various disciplines. The authorities should know this point.

Shahzaib Khan, promising taekwondo fighter, remained World No5 by the close of four-year cycle last year and this shows the nation has the capacity to qualify for the Los Angeles Games in taekwondo.

In wrestling, national wrestlers will need to get huge exposure in order to improve their world rankings and this will help them in the Olympics Qualifiers draw.

Mere fielding in the Olympics Qualifiers will not of any value as there will be no breakthrough unless they first improve their world rankings.

The country will direly need to first settle the weightlifting conflict, bring in a certain federation with international affiliation so that a proper working could be resumed. Any further delay in this zone will leave a bad impact on the Los Angeles Olympics dreams of two promising weightlifters Olympian Talha Talib and Nooh Dastgir Butt.

In judo and karate, qualifiers are too lengthy and it needs a huge financial input from the state but the authorities should definitely handle this also. Shooting federation is at the top in sending shooters to the Olympics and this time too more shooters are expected to earn direct quotas. But PSB will need to back the relevant federation and shooters persistently.

In hockey, Pakistan has shown improvement through second-place finish in the FIH Nations Cup the other day and Olympics hopes are always there but it can only be possible if hockey players get intensive exposure and due financial respite from the government.

In squash Noor Zaman, Asim Khan, Nasir Iqbal and Hamza Khan are some of the players who have the potential to qualify for the Los Angeles Games.

In volleyball, Pakistan, who will face Qatar in the AVC Nations Cup semi-finals in Manama today, has some chances of progression provided the discipline is treated well at all levels. Volleyballers need international matches before any major event which is the only way to pull the desired results in the events to come.

Pakistan Olympic Association’s (POA) Secretary General Khalid Mehmood has also acknowledged that Pakistan does not make proper preparation for the Olympics.

“The nations which want to win medals in the Olympics start preparation well in advance,” Khalid told Nukta in an interview.

“We have also included this subject in our June 24 POA ExCo meeting and we will ask national federations to give us a pathway that who in their disciplines can win medals and qualify for the Olympics,” Khalid said.

“And then we will see how we can back them technically and financially through the various business houses and corporate sector,” Khalid said.

Pakistan’s promising wrestler Sharif Tahir said that, without following the due process vigorously, qualifying for Olympics is not easy.

“If you don’t hold camps and provide exposure persistently to the budding athletes how you will qualify. For the last two years we have not seen any camp of wrestling and for the Paris Games qualifiers only a few days camp had been held. Look, for the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games we had held six months camp and we got five medals out of six and if we prepare for four years then we will certainly not only qualify for the Olympics but will also go for medals,” Tahir said.

PSB and POA will need to join hands and plan immediately to back leading athletes in their Olympics bid from now otherwise it will be too late once again.