Meet the Qatari equestrian creating hoofprints towards the Olympics

euronews (in English)

"It's not easy being a trailblazer. No one's done this before, I wanted to be able to put Qatar on the map."

Transcript

00:00 the first clear of the season.

00:02 [speaking in foreign language]

00:04 - Dressage is the equestrian ballet.

00:07 It is about performing a series of movements

00:10 together with your dance partner, your horse.

00:12 You have your pirouettes, your piaf and passage.

00:17 It's graceful, it's beautiful, but it is demanding.

00:22 You have to have faith that you can do

00:24 all of these movements 'cause your horse

00:26 also has that knowledge and experience.

00:28 [classical music]

00:30 It's a very lovely, rhythmic kind of motion.

00:33 You hear the horse's feet on the ground.

00:35 Clip, clop, clip, clop.

00:37 I love it, it's a great feeling.

00:39 My name is Wijdan Majid-Elmalki

00:41 and I am Qatar's only female international

00:44 Grand Prix dressage rider.

00:46 [classical music]

00:57 [upbeat music]

00:59 As a child, my dream was to do anything

01:03 that involved working with animals and horses.

01:05 My brothers, my sisters and I, we all started riding

01:10 about four or five years old.

01:12 I was already jumping by the time I was eight.

01:15 Riding as a profession was definitely not a viable option.

01:19 It was not culturally acceptable.

01:21 As a Qatari woman, I wasn't officially allowed to compete.

01:26 That of course changed with the coming of the Asian Games

01:28 and Qatar hosting the Games in 2006.

01:31 The whole country was behind us,

01:33 very actively recruiting and supporting

01:36 Qatari women and athletes to come into that competitive zone

01:40 and start representing Qatar.

01:43 Getting that little taste of the Asian Games

01:45 just wasn't enough.

01:46 Now that we have that opportunity,

01:48 I would like to seize it with both hands.

01:49 I want to go all the way.

01:51 I want to go to the Olympics.

01:52 [upbeat music]

01:55 [upbeat music]

01:57 There were doubts that any rider,

01:59 let alone a woman, female, Qatari rider could do it.

02:03 We have never had a rider at the Olympic level

02:06 or even the five-star international scene.

02:08 I also learned that if I was gonna make it,

02:10 I had to be European.

02:12 There's just so much more available,

02:15 more international shows, more people to compete against

02:17 that are very, very good.

02:20 I needed to move to Europe to gain the recognition,

02:23 exposure, and to be immersed in top quality sports

02:28 amongst athletes that will challenge you.

02:31 [upbeat music]

02:33 It's tough to wake up in the morning in winter

02:38 when it's minus seven outside, cold where you train.

02:41 Pretty much six days a week, if there's no competition.

02:46 If there's a competition, guess what?

02:48 Seven days a week.

02:51 It is incredibly challenging coming

02:54 into that international arena.

02:56 You have to earn your place in the international scene.

03:00 I've made it to Grand Prix.

03:02 That is the highest level of dressage.

03:03 This year, with my second five-star competition,

03:08 we got an Olympic world ranking.

03:09 [crowd applauding]

03:12 So to be able to have done that, to come back here now,

03:15 everyone looks at me differently.

03:17 It is now actually, wow, okay, she's an athlete.

03:21 [upbeat music]

03:23 The dream of having Qatar represented

03:26 in the dressage discipline at the Olympics

03:30 is now so much closer to coming true.

03:32 Riding is definitely a challenging sport.

03:41 It's not just your physical fitness.

03:44 It's also your mental strength.

03:46 It's not just you as an athlete.

03:48 It's also your horse.

03:50 [upbeat music]

03:53 Horses at this competitive level are incredibly sensitive.

03:56 So if I'm feeling a little tense

03:59 and my breathing starts to become erratic,

04:01 then my body will become a bit tense.

04:03 My horse will feel it straight away.

04:05 I spend about 30 minutes to an hour in advance

04:09 just closing my eyes, breathing, preparing myself,

04:13 writing the tests in my head before I get on my horse.

04:18 Dressage continues to teach me patience, determination.

04:23 You really have to be so precise.

04:27 The quality of every step.

04:29 It's not easy being a trailblazer.

04:31 No one's done this before.

04:34 I wanted to be able to put Qatar on the map.

04:37 For a Qatari woman like me,

04:38 having someone like Ujdan El-Malki

04:41 is something that's very inspiring.

04:43 Ujdan has really taught us

04:44 to achieve greater heights in sports

04:47 because of her focus and determination.

04:50 It takes a lot of courage and hours

04:53 to go into the international stage.

04:55 My dream one day is to have a dressage academy

05:01 and produce Qatar's next generation

05:04 of competitive dressage riders.

05:05 I have competed at this level.

05:09 Because I've done that,

05:11 I can help you get to that level as well.

05:17 Having Ujdan teach is something

05:19 that Qatari women could really look up to

05:23 and be able to see what is the highest level of the sport

05:27 and be able to embrace that.

05:29 The whole purpose of becoming the absolute best

05:34 I can be in this sport

05:36 is so that I can come back home here to Qatar.

05:39 To give back to people here, to the riders,

05:43 to give back to women especially,

05:46 to show them that if you have this dream

05:48 of becoming a competitive rider, it's doable.

05:51 (upbeat music)

05:53 (upbeat music)

05:56 (upbeat music)

05:58 [Music]

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