Weightlifting is a tough sport. One has to go through hell and come back to lift those weights. Obviously, physical strength is one thing, but it cannot be done without the right mental strength. For Talha Talib, the latter was the one that drove him all the way to the Olympics.
Prayers were his go-to. It kept him calm and gave him the strength to overcome all the obstacles he faced, which by the way is many.
He comes from Gujranwala, the city of wrestlers. His father was Muhammad Islam Natiq was a national weightlifting coach. Talha was just eight when his father introduced him to the sport. His brother is also into weightlifting and has competed at the national level.
The world got a glimpse of him during the Samoa Commonwealth Youth Games 2015 where he bagged a silver in the 56 kg category. Since then, he has been winning medals consistently. Beginning with four national championships, Bronze in the 2018 Commonwealth Games. He was also the gold medalist of the 2019 SAF Games.
Unfortunately, he practices a sport that is not cricket and thus, the support he received was minimum. With coronavirus pandemic, he couldn’t do much either but train as much as he can.
To qualify for the Tokyo 2020, he should’ve participated in six championships but he had managed only three of them. He had to miss out Asian Junior Championship because of confusion in the travel route. He missed out other two main events for similar reasons and his last chance to put himself on the map was to do well in the Asian Championships and sit back and pray.
He did exactly the same and clinched a Bronze medal in the tournament. Thankfully for him, he was accepted into the Olympics in ‘Invitational Quota’. He became the first Pakistan weightlifter in Olympics after 40+ years.
Now, he achieved all these by training at his own gym which is literally a school. The school had voluntarily given their ground to him to practice. It is an open space and he would have to stop practising if there was rain or even too much sun. He also had to practice with basic equipment as they couldn’t afford international standard equipment.
As Talha returned home after the Asian Championships, he found a letter from the school requesting him to vacate the space, blame the coronavirus pandemic. The school’s finance took a big hit that they had to do this to him. His father tried to get help from the Government, multiple times but no use.
As Talha reached the Olympics, he didn’t have a coach and the coach of Palestine provided him assistance whenever he could.
Still, he refused to give in. Talha did give his everything at the Olympics and right before the final round, he was holding the top spot eventually, he fell from the spot to finish fifth. He had lost a medal just by 2kgs.
Maybe, not this time but what he had done is to make heads turn. He made fans question the Government and cricket stars like Shadab Khan came forward. The Pakistan all-rounder had promised to build a fund within next year to help the athletes.
With hopes and promises, Talha returns home. Maybe, not as an Olympic medal winner but certainly as a hero.
Now, it is up to the Government to look beyond cricket, to come up with something to help these athletes, to give them what they deserve.
