Ali Thameem
Nabaha Abdhul Razzaq, 24, has been selected for the Paris Olympics 2024. She is set to be the first Badminton player in the Maldives’ history to appear in back-to-back Olympics.
Nabaha has received a tripartite invitation from the International Olympic Committee, as she did previously in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The IOC grants this opportunity to athletes who could not make it through the Olympic qualifiers but performed well enough for the tripartite commission to see fit to invite the athlete. Nabaha has thus accepted the invitation.
Nabaha is only the second badminton athlete to have partaken in the Olympics. The first badminton Olympian was Mohamed Ajufan, who competed in the London Olympics in 2012. In Tokyo, Naba was honoured to bear the national flag of Maldives, alongside swimmer Mubaal Azzam Ibrahim in the opening ceremony.
Over the past seven years, the badminton star represented the nation in several international tournaments besides the Olympics, winning numerous medals for Maldives. Such championships include Indian Ocean Island Games 2019 and 2023 – held in Mauritius and Madagascar respectively – Commonwealth Games Birmingham 2022, and YONEX SUNRISE Pakistan International Series 2019, among others.
Nabaha credits most of her achievements to her twin sister, Nabeeha – the current women’s singles national champion – who regularly pairs up with Nabaha in doubles and team events. In March 2020, the twins made history as the first Maldivians to appear on the World Badminton Federation’s top 100 women’s doubles list.
Nabaha joins table tennis star Fathmath Dheema Ali and track and field athlete Ibadhulla in the Maldivian contingency in the Summer Olympics 2024, scheduled from 26th July to 11th August.
