Today’s episode of The Mettleset Podcast is brought to you by New Balance
What do you do when you get a call telling you you're going to the Olympics… with six weeks to go?
For 18-year-old Emirati swimmer Maha Alshehhi, you put your head down, block out the noise, and mentally break a 200m freestyle into a ‘grocery run’.
Host Dawn Barnable sat down with Maha to trace her journey from beach fun to the pool lanes of Paris 2024 - four years ahead of schedule. Maha opens up about growing up as one of three sisters all representing the UAE National Team (yes, including a twin), and the habits that got her through one of the most electric sporting arenas on the planet.
We also get into the bigger picture: what it means to be a pioneer for Emirati women in open-water swimming, the surge of female swimmers now emerging from the GCC, and why LA 2028 - with all three Alshehhi sisters on the start line is very much the goal.
Follow Maha on Instagram: @mahaalshehhii
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Credits:
🚲 The Mettleset is a multimedia platform and online community dedicated to sharing stories of underrepresented athletes and underreported sports from the Middle East and beyond. With a mission to diversify the sporting ecosystem, it is one of the first and only sports platforms in the Middle East to put women in sport first, while also featuring niche sporting communities such as action and endurance sports.
I hope you enjoy the episode!