Women’s swimming in Pakistan is an unrecognized sport. Still, there are certain individuals who are making their mark at all levels
NOTWITHSTANDING the extraordinary performance of our national women swimming team in and outside the country in the last few years, women’s swimming is still, by and large, an unrecognized sport in Pakistan.
Apart from social apprehensions and high expenditure, one major reason has been the government’s reluctance to patronize the game. Bearing in mind this indifference of officials concerned, it is indeed heartening to see the feats achieved by the young swimmers, particularly in this year’s SAF Games. Their latest breakthrough, however, is the selection of one of their colleagues for the invitational entry into the Olympics to be held in Athens in August.
A student of class IX, Rubab Raza, will be creating history as she is going to be the first woman swimmer to represent Pakistan in the Olympics. Along with Sumera Zahoor, a sprinter to compete in a 200-metre race, she will be participating in the 50-metre freestyle category. She already holds the record for the fastest national swimmer and has seven national records in her age group, while three in the open category.
“I am experiencing joy, excitement, pressure and nervousness — all at the same time. The news was surprising because everybody was expecting that Kiran Khan would be selected for the Olympics since she is the number one national swimmer. However, the international swimming federation made the decision on the basis of my comparatively better performance in the last year’s world swimming championship in Barcelona. It is indeed a great honour,” says the 13-year-old national junior champion of last year.
Though a great disappointment for Kiran, the independent decision of Fina (Federation Internationale De Natation) in no way belittles her achievements as the country’s top most swimmer.
A student of Lahore Grammar School of Class VIII, Kiran has been swimming since the age of four. To date, she has received 98 medals, including 12 which she won in international competitions. Besides holding many national records, she remained the best national junior swimmer of Under-12 and Under-14 category for some years and won 10 medals at the 3rd Islamic Games and three individual silver medals in the SAF Games.
“We can deliver more if we are trained throughout the year and provided more facilities and international exposure. For my successes, I give full credit to my father who coached me and has been a great support,” she says.
The best national swimmer from 1997 to 2002 and the winner of a record total of 16 medals at the 3rd Islamic Games, Sana Wahid, also emphasized the need for all-year-round training, plus facilities such as swimming pools for the swimmers. “Here we don’t have one single swimming pool where we can all swim together. All of us get trained in different private pools and meet only for a championship camp,” she says.
Sana hit the headlines during the 2002 XVII Commonwealth Games held in Manchester. The two-member team, comprising her and Kiran Khan, captured the attention of world media when 18-year-old Sana became the first woman from Pakistan to swim for her nation outside a Muslim country. Also, the youngest among all the contesting swimmers, 12-year-old Kiran Khan, was nicknamed “water baby”.
Despite having no chance of winning any medal, the participation alone of these teenage girls in such a prestigious competitive sporting event was a milestone.
“This was a major turning point. Though, they didn’t win any medals, not even placed in the finals, it was a major leap. The girls received worldwide positive coverage that boosted their confidence and morale,” says Veena Masud, secretary Pakistan Women’s Swimming Federation and a member of the Pakistan Olympic Association.
“The advent of the bodysuits that covers almost the entire body played a significant role in this regard. All the top internationalswimmers were using that long costume at the time. The government agreed to our contention that the bodysuit won’t be violating our Islamic traditions and the girls were sent to the games,” she says.
Earlier, the swimming team performed exceptionally well at the second and the third Islamic Women’s Games in Iran and won 18 and 48 medals respectively. While in this year’s SAF Games they won 14 medals. The swimmers who have brought these laurels to the country include Mahira Karim (the only second swimmer at the IX SAF Games who won individual silver medal), Mehrunnisa Khan (three individual national records holder and winner of six medals at the 3rd Islamic Games), Ayesha Tajwar (winner of 14 medals at the 3rd Islamic Games), Reema Qureshi, Mehvish Naveed Aziz (national junior champion 2001) and Aqza Tariq (national junior champion 2003).
The organizers were extremely cautious in holding the events and of its press coverage keeping in view the social apprehensions. The championships are held under strict Islamic codes, barring men as spectators.
It was not before 1992 that the country had its first ever women’s swimming championship in Sindh while the first contest at the national level was held in 1996 after Punjab responded positively and a body was set up there for the promotion of the sport. Julia Irani, Nida Waqar, Aliya Majeed and Nadia were top swimmers at the time.
“Being the only trained woman in those days I started training others and now we have 90 trained women swimmers who can conduct a championship. Sindh women’s championship has the largest number of athletes participating in any sporting event and we have as many as 300 little girls swimming,” observes Ms Masud.
At present, only two elite schools in the city have swimming pools and the swimmers generally come from families that can afford memberships of private clubs. At the government level, only Islamabad has an international standard 50-metre pool in the country whereas in India, Banglore alone has 30 pools.
“This is a sad situation. Swimming should be open for everybody. Up till now the government has not contributed a single penny except promising provision of land for a pool. Girls in Punjab are receiving monthly stipend but the same is not being done for girls here,” she says.
Moreover, the championships’ expenditures are arranged through sponsorships while airline tickets are at times paid by the parents themselves. The government has not yet honoured its promise of paying for the bodysuits the swimmers wore in the Commonwealth Games nor has it awarded winners of SAF Games.
“If the government is serious, it should immediately separate sports from the ministry of culture and tourism. Schools are nurseries for natural talent and sports should be bracketed with education and not with any other ministry. Incentives should be given to local coaches and athletes. At the moment, I am the only trained female swimmer of international standard and I was able to learn it because of my son, Kamal Masud, who participated twice in the Olympics on a wild card entry,” Ms Masud says.
In spite of the government’s poor response women’s swimming is now making inroads into the NWFP as well after the participation of teams from the army, navy, Wapda, Sindh and Punjab in different championships.
“Our next target is Balochistan. Swimming has done well because we had such a dedicated group of women who fought for girls. I want to see the same spirit in other disciplines as well but unfortunately there is so much of politics, self-interests and self-projection involved that they forget the real issue,” Ms Masud says.
Women’s swimming in Pakistan is an unrecognized sport. Still, there are certain individuals who are making their mark at all levels 
