On the mirror in Maryam Al Farsi’s bathroom are coloured Post-it notes carrying the promises she makes herself every morning.
“I will provide for my mum. I am strong. I will do this.”
On the days she doubts herself, she reads them, walks out of her room and sees her mother working on her laptop, a reminder of why she must continue pursuing her dreams. Al Farsi is now 18, but two years ago in Paris, at just 16, she became the first Emirati sprinter to compete at the Olympic Games.
One would presume her pursuit is for herself, but it’s not. “It’s my lifelong mission to provide for my family,” she told The National.
Al Farsi was a speaker at Middlesex University Dubai’s Women in Sport series, launched through its London Sport Institute. The series brought together Emirati women to speak about identity, heritage and the next generation. And while she hopes to pave the way for the younger generation, her main purpose in life is to provide for the women who made her.
The women behind the woman
Her inspirations are her mother, Leila, and Leila’s twin sister, Ilham. “They’re both like my mothers. They are the strongest pillars in my life and they are my why. They’re the reason I chose track in the first place. They’re the reason why I didn’t give up,” she said.
Then Maryam catches herself. “Actually, I did give up.”
At around age 14, the pressure she piled on herself became too much, and Al Farsi walked away from athletics for almost a year. She kept much of what she was feeling to herself, but Leila and Ilham sensed it anyway. “My mum said, 'Just give it one more try ... just for me.' And I was like, ‘Only because it’s you.' And that was the best decision I made because if I didn’t do that, I wouldn’t have gone to the Paris Olympics.”
Al Farsi’s parents are divorced. Her father is Emirati and her mother is Iranian. Leila raised Maryam and her brother as a single mother, with her twin sister, Ilham, and the rest of the family close beside her. “She has six sisters and they’re all so amazing. It’s like basically a family full of women, which I love, a house full of women,” Al Farsi said.
'My mum is my fire'
Her appreciation and gratitude to her mum and her aunt are so profound they almost lendthemselves to guilt. She watched as her mother toiled and laboured to ensure Maryam could make her Olympic dreams come true.
Leila paid for school, training, physiotherapy and everyday costs that came with raising two children. “She financed my whole life; no one else was helping. Her and my aunties were the only people there.”
I don't want her to ever worry about money. I never want her to worry about her job. I want to retire her. When I say her, I mean both of them, like the twins – one person. I just want to make them happy.
Maryam Al Farsi
She recalls one memory that left her in tears after she dropped her mum off at work one day. “I just started sobbing after, and I was like, 'I want to provide for my mum. I don’t want her to work a nine-to-five. I want to pay for her house, I want to pay for her bills.'
“I don't want her to ever worry about money. I never want her to worry about her job. I want to retire her. When I say her, I mean both of them, like the twins – one person. I just want to make them happy,” Al Farsi explains tearfully.
She admires her mother’s character and her disinterest in all things material. “She doesn’t care about money. My mum does not care. She cares about health, she cares about happiness, about love.”
What the mother sacrificed, the daughter wants to repay. Leila fought for her daughter’s right to compete when others questioned whether she should continue pursuing sport. “My mum is my fire.” Maryam continues, “My whole essay for university was that my mum was a fire in my life. Because she said no to someone. Because they didn't want me to compete in sport and she said no, she is competing and the second I saw her say that it felt like because she was able to do that, I'm able to do anything.”
Success on and off track
Success always comes at a cost, and Al Farsi remembers all the weekends and birthday parties she had to miss. “I lost a lot of friends,” she added.
Education remains a priority. Al Farsi put athletics “a little to the side” while completing A-levels in economics, business and maths. “I love track, and I really want a future in it. But I also need to prioritise my education. And for my mum, it's education, education, education. But thank God I graduated with a great grade.”
Attending Harvard Business School is the ultimate goal. “I really want that picture in front of the banner of me posing in front of Harvard Business School.”
Al Farsi is also an aspiring entrepreneur. She has launched a company that focuses on parent engagement for schools and aims to bring all the information needed into one place. The idea was inspired by watching her mother’s struggles with her own children’s education.
Mo Farah and Maryam Al Farsi at RunYas - in pictures
“I saw my mum struggling with trying to even paint a picture for me and my brother’s education. Even though she has so much information, it’s just fragmented.”
Athletics remains part of her future. She admits that she "kind of thought I was fast but I wasn’t naturally fast.” Then her competitive nature came into play. “I need to get better at this. I will die if I don’t become the best.”
Al Farsi has her sights set on qualifying for the LA2028 Olympics and competing in as many Diamond League meetings as possible. She’s proud to represent the UAE. “I get to represent such an amazing country and amazing people, so I definitely won’t stop with that.”
Advice
Dr James Doty, a Stanford neurosurgeon and neuroscientist, says manifestation is most effective when it’s driven by compassion and the wish to improve other people’s lives.
Al Farsi's instinct to look after people extends beyond just her own family. “I just love it, seeing the happiness in someone else’s eyes, just taking the pressure off of them. I’ll do it, even if that puts pressure on me.”
Her advice to young girls is to find their niche, their fire that will spur them to succeed. “It could be something like I want to prove this person wrong, or I want to make this person happy, and if I can make this person happy, that will make me happy. That's really it.”
Asked to choose among another Olympic opportunity, attending Harvard or owning a successful company, Maryam doesn’t hesitate.
“I would choose whichever provides for my family.”