Mai Al-Madani: My family encourages me to train and supports me in every tournament I participate in

Mwatana refuses the job for love of weightlifting

UAE weightlifting champion Mai Al Madani. From the source

UAE weightlifting champion Mai Al Madani revealed that she refused to work in several jobs to devote herself to her sport, through which she wants to achieve an Olympic or world medal.

Al-Madani told Emirates Today: "I got many job opportunities, but I rejected them all after I felt that they would hinder me from training for long hours, and then may stand in the way of achieving my sports goals, so I apologized for all of them."

She added: «Weightlifting is one of the sports that require many hours of daily training, and preoccupation with other things may take me back many steps, so I focused my efforts on training and championships in order to win a world medal that I am honored to have won for the UAE».

She continued: «The fact that I do not think about the money or the returns that can accrue to me from the sport of weightlifting, I have one goal now to work at my maximum capacity and remove the barriers that prevent access to the dream for which I practice weightlifting, I do not practice that game for fame or money, but in order to write my name in letters of gold in the sport of the Emirates».

On her choice of weightlifting, and whether she faced opposition from her family to exercise, Mai Al-Madani said: «I got to know the sport of weightlifting closely when a friend of mine took me to watch her training, so I loved the game and decided the next day to be with her in training, and since then I have not stopped training».

She explained: "My family constantly encourages me to train, and supports me in every tournament I participate in. In the end, sport remains important in anyone's life, it is the constant secret to maintaining health and protecting against the risks of disease, and the constant source of energy and happiness regardless of whether sport is for practice or competition."

On the difficulties she currently faces in weightlifting, Mai Al-Madani said: «The game of weightlifting is a high-cost sport, and it needs large sums to spend on training and buy proteins, whose prices have risen in the recent period, and I think that the most prominent problem suffered by the champions in that game is the lack of specialized centers for weightlifting, which pushes players to train in regular fitness centers, which makes it very difficult to prepare us for championships, especially external ones».

And about the reason from her point of view that Emirati girls do not continue to practice sports for long periods of time, she said: «The reasons are many, perhaps including the girls' preoccupation with studying and then working or getting married, and perhaps in many cases there are difficulties in providing support that encourages girls to practice sports, and there is another reason from my point of view that there are some sports that need physical effort and long training hours, and I remember that I encouraged 30 girls to join the game of weightlifting, and 26 girls withdrew from them, Four of them continued their career with the game."

Mai Al-Madani achieved a new record in the Asian Senior Weightlifting Championship, which was recently held in Bahrain under the supervision of the Asian Weightlifting Confederation, with the participation of 58 countries, and succeeded in raising her total by 20 kg from her previous weight achieved in the Islamic Solidarity Games held in the Turkish city of Konya last August, after achieving a total of 154 kg, which is 69 kg in the snatch and 85 kg in the netter.

• 69 kg lifted by Mai Al-Madani in the kidnapping, and 85 kg in the netter.

Mai Al-Madani:

"I don't think about money or the returns of weightlifting."

• "I went with my friend to watch her training and I loved the game, and since then I have not stopped training."

• "I encouraged 30 girls to practice weightlifting, of which 26 players withdrew."