Desert odds for the ice princess Zahra Lari

The odds are not in favour of Emirati ice skater Zahra Lari qualifying for the 2018 Winter Olympics. For starters, she lives in the desert.

The sport has been all but non-existent in the UAE until recently, which explains the third factor against her: she did not start professional figure skater training until she was 12, compared to the average age of three.

Adding to the 20-year-old’s challenge, she is the first and only contestant to wear an Islamic headscarf.

But to Lari, none of that matters; she has her eyes on the prize.

“I want to prove that not only can a covered Muslim female but also someone coming from the desert, participate in a winter sport at the Winter Olympics. That would be an amazing thing for me to do,” she tells Arabian Business.

And she may well be on her way to proving the point.

Original article by Lubna Hamdan

Continue reading at Arabian Business:

Desert odds for the ice princess Zahra Lari