KARACHI: “It is a huge honour for us that our daughter will be the flag-bearer at the Olympics ceremony. I am just finishing up work so that I can get home to watch the ceremony,” Pakistan badminton player Mahoor Shahzad’s father Muhammad Shahzad, the international rower and former badminton player himself expressed his joy as the 2020 Olympic Games start.
“Not only is she the first Pakistani to play at the Olympics’ badminton event, she is also doing the honours of bearing the flag. It is a dream come true,” Shahzad tells The Express Tribune, adding that it is a big feat for any Pakistani to even find a place in the Olympics.
The 24-year-old will be bearing the Pakistan flag at the ceremony with shooter Muhammad Khalil Akhtar in Tokyo. Pakistan is fielding a squad of 10 athletes in six sports, and Mahoor was selected to be holding the flag at the prestigious ceremony.
“It is huge. These athletes are the top athletes from Pakistan, she is among them and from these athletes she is selected to be a flag-bearer. I can’t be happier than this as a father. Our daughter is selected from the best.”
Mahoor had been representing Pakistan for the last couple of years. She rose to prominence with her performances at the national level first and then striving to find the participation at the international events. She was a part of Pakistan contingent in the 2018 Asian Games and also the 2019 South Asian Games in Nepal.
She was ranked 133 in the world till June, and her father believes that her performances have made him proud, not just as a father but also as a man in Pakistan and a badminton player.
“I feel very proud of her, because no badminton player, even among men, qualified for the Olympics before. But she did. I can say that a girl did beat the boys in this,” said Shahzad, as he looks back at Mahoor being athletic from a very young age and playing with her older sister throughout her childhood.
The Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) had confirmed Mahoor’s place in the Tokyo Olympics last month and the POA chief Lt Gen (R) Syed Arif Hasan congratulated her on the achievement. —agencies
