Emirati figure skater Zahra Lari performs a daredevil helicopter stunt as she blazes a trail on ice

Gulf News

When you first meet Zahra Lari, it is hard to imagine the petite, soft-spoken demeanour hides an adventurous streak that didn’t need much persuasion to sign on for stunt that saw her suspended from a helicopter, 250 meters above the highest vantage point on the Palm Jumeirah as she plunged on to the The Palm Tower’s still unopened deck on the 54th floor to do what she does best — skate her heart out.  Lari, who has earned the accolade as the first Emirati figure skater, threw caution to the wind as she landed, skates first on Nakheel’s The Next Level observation deck that had been transformed into a makeshift ice rink for the Emirati trailblazer to perform the axel, the loop and other jumps with gleeful abandon.  A day after her daredevil stunt, Lari sat down with Gulf News to talk talk to us about her helicopter stunt, life on the ice and her goal of representing the UAE at the Winter Olympics one day.  Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/3HkVPbo  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #Dubai #figureskating

Transcript

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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