In January, Nasser Al-Attiyah was flying through the hills and dunes that dot the landscape of Saudi Arabia, driving his Toyota Hilux to pick up a fifth title at the dangerous yet celebrated Dakar Rally.
Nine months later, with a shotgun perched on his shoulder, the Qatari was shooting clay targets at the Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre in Hangzhou to help his country win two medals – a team silver and an individual bronze – in skeet shooting at the Asian Games.
The two medals account for half of Qatar’s tally in Hangzhou, clinched by someone who is 52 and doesn’t shoot all-year round. In fact, Al-Attiyah picked up shooting hoping it would help him focus better in rallying.
But the 52-year-old became such a pro at it that he clinched gold medals at the 2001, 2006 and 2012 Asian Shooting Championships and 2002 and 2010 Asian Games before also claiming a bronze at the 2012 London Olympics.
“When I am competing in rally driving, no skeet training. Nothing, zero training. I didn’t do training for the (Asian) Games. I used my experience and this is why I have two medals here at the Asian Games,” Al-Attiyah was quoted as saying by AFP.
The Qatari’s feat is nothing short of remarkable given the demands of modern sport and the toll it takes on athletes today. Gone are the days of CB Fry, who played for England at cricket and football, and equalled the world record for the long jump or American athlete Jim Thorpe (he won two gold medals in the 1912 Summer Olympics, one in classic pentathlon and the other in decathlon. He also played American football (collegiate and professional), professional baseball, and basketball) or ‘Bullet’ Bob Hayes, who excelled as a sprinter winning the 100m and 4x100m gold at the 1964 Olympics and then made a mark in the National Football League. The great Carl Lewis was a champion sprinter and long jumper as well.
But it is increasingly becoming very difficult in this day and age to shift one’s focus outside his or her discipline. With competitions throughout the year – there is no off season now across sport – athletes have to train through the year, participate in multiple competitions to qualify for the bigger ones and most importantly have to manage their training and schedule so that they peak during the major tournaments.
There have been some names who have played at the highest level in two different sports. Take Ashleigh Barty for example. The Australian played three disciplines in tennis, reached finals of Grand Slams then decided to switch to cricket for a couple of years where she played 50 over as well as T20 cricket at the highest domestic level before returning to tennis again to win three singles Grand Slam crowns, one doubles Major and an Olympic medal!
The great Michael Jordan too surprised the world when he retired in 1993. Having “lost the desire to play basketball”, Jordan made a move to his childhood love of baseball only to realise that succeeding in basketball was different than winning in baseball. He eventually made a return to the sport that gave him name, fame and money.
There have been others too like Ric Charlesworth, who played cricket and hockey simultaneously. But athletes playing more than one sport is increasingly becoming a rarity which is why we will unlikely get to see more of the likes of Al-Attiyah, who not just compete in sports that are at the opposite ends of the spectrum but also excel in it.
Al-Attiyah’s achievement is nothing short of incredible. To win at the Dakar Rally, competing against the very best rally raid drivers in the world like Sebastien Loeb or Carlos Sainz Senior to win medals in shooting at not just the Asian but also global level (Olympics) requires a special kind of perseverance.
Al-Attiyah did not stop at two sports either. He also tried his hand at horse riding and also competed in powerboat racing, finishing second at the 2013 Superboat World Championships in Key West, Florida.
The 52-year-old won a team skeet gold at the 2002 Busan Asian Games and returned to the continental showpiece eight years later to bag another gold in the same event before also taking home a bronze in the individual event in Guangzhou. He returned to the podium twice at Hangzhou with a men’s skeet team silver and skeet individual bronze without even touching the shotgun before reaching China as he was busy rallying.
Now, the five-time Dakar champion is targetting the 2024 Paris Games, having competed in all Olympics from 1996 to 2016 before missing Tokyo. He doesn’t intend to take part in the regular International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) competitions and will only take part in the Olympic qualifiers.
“I am not in the ISSF competitions at the moment because I am also a professional rally driver. I am so busy. The next (Olympic qualification) competition will be in (South) Korea (in October). There are two quota places. I hope to take one to be in Paris,” he said.
Al-Attiyah said that rallying and shooting may be completely different sports but some of the skills needed applied to both. “Strength, mind strength,” he said. “Rallying is very difficult. We are competing at a high level in rallying. It is not easy to rally and shoot at a high level, but every sport helps.”
Indeed, every sport helps.