MEDIA GALLERY
Ski is the limit for Pakistan’s Winter Olympian
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Muhammad Abbas has come a long way from the days when he and his friends would strap rough wooden planks to their legs with nylon rope and go skiing. On Tuesday, the 24-year-old will become the first Pakistani to compete at a Winter Olympics when he starts in the giant slalom.
Photos and text by AP and Reuters
The story began in 1996 when his coach, Zahid Farooq was posted to Naltar, near the town of Gilgit in the foothills of the Karakoram mountains, as a survival trainer. Abbas has also been assisted by the Pakistan Air Force contributing from their welfare fund. “Abbas started skiing on home-made wooden skis,” his coach Zahid Farooq recalls. —Photo by AP