In 2010, skier Muhammad Abbas was the first athlete ever from Pakistan to compete at the Winter Olympics.
He finished 79th out of 103 competitors in the men’s giant slalom event held at Whistler Creekside as part of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
After the Olympics, Abbas donated his Pakistani Olympic uniform and the pair of skis he learned to ski on as a boy to the BC Sports Hall of Fame. His story combined with how these artifacts were delivered to Vancouver has to be one of the most unique among the 28,000+ artifacts in the Hall of Fame collection.
Abbas grew up in the mountain village of Naltar in northern Pakistan. As a young boy, he became intrigued watching Pakistan Air Force personnel practice search and rescue survival training on skis on Pakistan’s oldest ski hill.
By Canadian or European ski hill standards, the Naltar slopes were tame, but Abbas was entranced and wanted nothing more than to try skiing himself.
A real pair of Rossignols or Salomons were beyond his family’s means, but that didn’t stop Abbas' father from scrounging up some rough wooden planks, nails, rubber strips, and wire at a garbage dump. He carved the planks by hand and with the other materials fashioned a rudimentary pair of skis for his eager son.
Soon Abbas was hitching rides up the ski hill’s tow rope and slaloming back down. It wasn’t long before air force officials noticed the boy’s raw potential and loaned him a pair of their old skis.
Zahid Farooq, a retired air force officer, began overseeing the then-eight-year-old Abbas' training and his development as a skier flourished. He competed locally throughout his teens.
Funding for competing farther abroad was difficult to come by. In the two years before the 2010 Olympics, Abbas was only able to obtain funding to allow him to train for eight weeks. Still, by competing in obscure FIS (International Ski and Snowboard Federation) events Abbas was able to accumulate enough points to meet Olympic standards and qualify as Pakistan’s first-ever Winter Olympian.
Finishing 79th overall in the giant slalom almost 43 seconds behind gold medalist Carlo Janka of Switzerland might not seem like much of an accomplishment but considering that Abbas was ranked 3764 th in the world in the event, plus where he came from in remote, northern Pakistan, his story must rank as one of the greatest underdog stories of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.
In the year after the Olympics, the BC Sports Hall of Fame team began planning our Vancouver 2010 Gallery. We contacted athletes from around the world through any means possible, including some like Abbas through his Facebook page online. I began a regular email exchange with Abbas' coach and we discussed plans to ship the first-ever Pakistani Winter Olympic uniform that Muhammad wore during the Games to us to display.
However, getting that uniform to Canada proved a whole other story. Farooq and Abbas lived in Islamabad, Pakistan. We later learned Islamabad was by coincidence not far from Abbottabad, where at that time it was a well-known local "secret" that one of the world’s most wanted terrorists of all time was hiding out in a personal compound.
His name was Osama bin Laden. Remember him?
Farooq explained to me that getting material in and out of the area was extremely difficult, although he didn’t say why at that time. A normal shipment by courier was impossible.
Not long after, bin Laden was assassinated at his Abbottabad compound by U.S. special operations forces.
Meanwhile, Farooq made alternative arrangements with a friend who was a Pakistani military officer travelling to Toronto. The friend planned to pack Abbas' uniform and leave it at his Toronto hotel, from which a courier could pick it up to send to the Hall of Fame in Vancouver. I called the Toronto hotel on the agreed-upon day, and they had no idea who Farooq’s friend was or about any package left for the Hall of Fame.
After multiple fruitless phone conversations, I gave up, confused and disappointed.
Two weeks went by with no update from Farooq despite several emails to him. One day an unmarked package from Toronto showed up on the Hall of Fame’s doorstep unexpectedly.
To this day, we’re still not sure how it all was arranged.
Inside was not only Abbas' Pakistani uniform but the hand-carved skis he learned to ski on as a boy—which were a total surprise to us at that time. Although Abbas didn’t use these wooden skis in Vancouver, we decided to display them beside the downhill skis Switzerland’s Didier Defago raced on to win Olympic gold to serve as a stark contrast for the very different journeys athletes took to compete at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
Over the past 13 years on display, these hand-carved skis from Pakistan’s first-ever Winter Olympian have become a highlight stop for many visitors to the Vancouver 2010 Gallery.
The BC Sports Hall of Fame celebrates over 150 years of sporting achievement in British Columbia, inspiring future generations through its collection of 28,000+ artifacts. With exhibits honouring legendary athletes, teams, and sports organizations, we highlight the history of sports in B.C. and the individuals who’ve shaped its rich sports culture.
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