00:00My name is Zahra Lahri, and I'm the first Emirati competitive figure skater to compete
00:10worldwide.
00:11I started skating actually pretty late.
00:13I started when I was 12 years old.
00:15I watched a skating movie, and it was, you would say, love at first sight.
00:18I actually went into the rink the next day, I stepped on the ice, I fell a million times,
00:23I got back up again.
00:25I didn't give up.
00:26I realized that I really loved it, and the rest is history.
00:33We all have dreams.
00:35My dream was to fly.
00:38Now, look up, look higher, look further, and touch the sky.
00:53I did a really cool project with Nakhil, and that was to skate on the 54th floor.
01:00And to be honest, that was a great experience.
01:02The view up there is absolutely amazing.
01:05So to be up there, to do what I love to do, which is skating, have a great view, I mean,
01:11I don't think I can ask for anything more.
01:13They did put up an ice rink up there just for the project and for me to skate on.
01:24I was persistent, and I did it not only for me, but for women all over the world, for
01:30Muslim women, for Emirati women, to show the world that Emirati women are strong.
01:35I mean, we can accomplish anything we set our mind to, and it makes me super proud that
01:39I'm able to raise the UA flag internationally all over the world.
01:43At the beginning, especially when you're the first, people don't really know much about
01:47the sport.
01:48So I had to really focus on awareness, going to school, talking to parents, teaching people
01:55about the sport in general.
01:56They didn't know anything about it.
01:57It's a winter sport.
01:58We're in a desert country, so not much awareness was about it.
02:03But if you look today, I mean, we opened up our own skating club, and we have our club
02:09alone is 60-plus members, and all over UAE, there's a lot more skaters.
02:14So it went from me to a lot of people.
02:16So I think I did a good job.
02:18Definitely there's a lot of pressure.
02:19I think as I'm getting older, as my name is growing, people are knowing more about me.
02:24The pressure is increasing.
02:26But I've just learned to enjoy it, have fun, and not really focus on what other people
02:32think.
02:33To be honest, I'm getting so much support, not just from my country, all over the world.
02:38Everywhere I travel, people are so supportive.
02:40I get so many messages on social media.
02:42I just have to really have fun while I'm doing skating and really focus on myself and my
02:49personal happiness.
02:50People are becoming more supportive in sports.
02:52The rules are changing in sports, even for women that are covered.
02:56So I think life is changing.
02:57People are becoming more aware.
02:59It's not like before, how it was.
03:01People are supporting females participating in sports.
03:04If you look here in UAE, we have literally a national team for females in every sport.
03:08You can have hockey, figure skating, football, anything you can think of.
03:13Women are doing it.
03:14So we're very lucky here that they're very supportive of women.
03:19They're very supportive, not just in the field of sport, but in the field of everything.
03:22You can see women CEO, ambassadors, ministers.
03:25So they're really supporting women.
03:27We're showing the world that Emirati women are able to do all of these kinds of stuff.
03:33I hope I made my country proud so far.
03:37I broke a lot of barriers already.
03:39I got the first in so many things.
03:42So I think I already accomplished a lot.
03:44It's time for you to join me at the View at the Palm.
03:49Up here, it's just you and the sky.
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