Hakeem Abdul-Saboor
Between training runs and competition at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, former Powhatan High School football star and Team USA bobsledder Hakeem Abdul-Saboor took time to answer a few of our questions via email. And while he expressed frustration with the results of this week's two-man races, he wrote on Instagram, "My head is still held high and [I'm] very proud to be here at the #olympics representing my country and the places I call home. #Powhatan #Wise #Knoxville #Jersey #Iloveyall." Look for him in the four-man bobsled competition this Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 24 and 25.
Richmond magazine: How does it feel to be in PyeongChang?
Hakeem Abdul-Saboor: To be at the Olympics is a dream come true. All of the different cultures and the caliber of athletes that are here, it is a great honor to be among them.
RM: What are training days like?
Abdul-Saboor: We get the sled prepped and ready to go and then have our sliding session, which consists of two runs down the track and takes about two hours. Following training, we will break down the sled and do any work that is needed to get the sled ready for tomorrow’s training, which could take anywhere from one hour to all night depending on what needs to be fixed.
RM: How do you prepare for competition?
Abdul-Saboor: On race day, I make sure to eat a nice meal high in carbs in the morning for my energy source. I will then do a light potentiation workout, which consists of doing some Olympic lifts and some plyometrics. My strength coach makes sure to keep my weight light so I can move it fast to get my quick-twitch muscle fibers firing. I then proceed to do a warm-up of jogging and sprint mechanics, which takes about an hour. By then it is race time, and so I get myself mentally prepared to hone in all the hours of practice and use those skills on my race pushes.
RM: What made you decide to go into bobsledding?
Abdul-Saboor: I actually did not choose bobsled, it chose me. I was a trainer at Performance Training Inc. in Knoxville, Tennessee, and we were doing a workout as a staff. After our workout, we were all fooling around and some of my co-workers were trying to touch one ceiling, while I was trying to touch a higher one. They then realized that my head was going higher than some of their hands, so they asked me to see if I could touch my head to the ceiling that they were trying to touch with their hand. They then videoed me touching my head to the 10-foot-or-so ceiling. An Olympic training site had just opened up at East Tennessee State, which is about an hour and a half from Knoxville, and my current strength coach, Brad DeWeese, saw the video. He proceeded to contact me and ask me if I would like to do a combine for the bobsled team. I then went to the training site and did my combine, in which I scored pretty well on it. He mentioned that I was built for bobsled and I should continue training to try and make the team. I trained under Dr. DeWeese all summer, which resulted in me making the national team my rookie season.
RM: What makes you well-suited to be a bobsledder?
Abdul-Saboor: When coaches go out to find potential bobsledders, they look for athletes who are not only explosive, but fast as well. ... They have a rookie camp and test all athletes on dry land pushing a bobsled on rails to see who can push it the fastest. The winner of that competition then gets invited to the national push competition, which is hosted in Calgary, Canada, where they will compete against all of the returning athletes on ice. So not only does an athlete need to be very powerful and fast, they also have to be able to use that energy efficiently to be a good bobsledder.
RM: Did you ever imagine yourself doing this?
Abdul-Saboor: I never would’ve imagined myself doing this before i got into the sport.
RM: What appeals to you about it?
Abdul-Saboor: The fact that I could compete after college was the biggest thing that appealed to me. I had a career-ending injury in college in which I tore my ACL [a knee ligament] one week after an athlete is able to take a medical redshirt for the season. That left an empty hole in my heart because I had plans of trying to go to the next level to play in the NFL.
RM: What would you like people to know about the sport?
Abdul-Saboor: This sport is an adrenaline rush. There is no other feeling like it. When you’re standing on the line and ready to push, there is nothing else that matters at that point in time. We put in 10-plus-hour days outside of sliding, working on our sleds and preparing our bodies to be ready to go down for two one-minute runs. Some would think that is a lot of time to work, but those two minutes while you’re on the ice going as fast as you can and flirting with the fine line of winning or crashing are unlike any other thing you will experience.
RM: What should we look for when watching the Olympics?
Abdul-Saboor: During the Olympics you should look for us, Team USA. Ha! Watching the race, they do a really good job of explaining everything, so it should be pretty easy to watch and understand what is going on. There will be the time on the side of the screen that shows the time and speed of the bobsled in track. If the timing eye is red, then they are behind whoever is in first. If it is green, then they are winning.
RM: How is it looking for the U.S. bobsled team?
Abdul-Saboor: This track is a very technical track, and our drivers do not have a lot of trips on it. If they can get the track dialed in and can figure out the lines they should take on all the corners, USA will do very well. We are always competitive with the other nations with our start times pushing the sleds. [With] this track, if you make one mistake up top, you will lose a lot of your speed, and your chances of gaining it back by the end are slim.
RM: Has the team bonded? Who are you closest to?
Abdul-Saboor: The team [consists] of three four-man teams. We all do things together as a whole, but each four-man crew is its own team, and so that is who I am closest with. We all compete for USA and work together as a whole to make all things go smoothly. On race day, we are all competitors, though, since only one team can win the gold medal. My four-man crew does everything together as a team. We are very close on that sled and have to try and be one body moving together, so when you mesh with a team off the ice it makes for better cohesion when we are sliding down the hill.
RM: What will you do after the Olympics?
Abdul-Saboor: After the Olympics, I will be headed back to Lake Placid [New York] to the training center, and I am not sure what is the plan from there.
RM: Do you still have ties to Powhatan and the Richmond area? Do you visit often?
Abdul-Saboor: I still have a lot of friends and family there. I unfortunately have not been able to visit very much since I started the sport and mostly train up north at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid. With bobsled being a blue-collar sport, we rely on having sponsors to help us. It is tough to manage having the funds to go visit friends and family and be able to continue training as I should. Transportation, having a gym to work out at, getting treatment (massage and chiropractic), getting the right nutrition for my diet, all are things I have to have funding for ... and therefore it makes it tough to be able to get back to the area often.
RM: What are your favorite memories of growing up here?
Abdul-Saboor: My favorite memories are just the times spent with friends and family. I love the community, and nothing can beat the times where you feel all the love and happiness from just being together with everyone. ... I did not realize how much I would miss Powhatan and doing that until I was away doing my sport.
RM: Where do you like to go when you're here?
Abdul-Saboor: I am a roll-with-the-flow kind of guy, and therefore I like to go anywhere that my friends and family are. I am never the one to pick the place, so whether it be someone’s house, going to a sporting event in the area or heading out on the town, I am happy.
