From Bodybuilder To USA Olympic Bobsledder, Meet Hakeem Abdul-Saboor

The 30-year-old is the first person to convert from another physically demanding sport to bobsledding since 1998. 

You can’t not love Bobsleigh after watching Cool Runnings – one of the best films ever made.

But this news article isn’t focusing on the Jamaican team. Instead, a bro named Hakeem Abdul-Saboor has caught our attention.

Why? Because he changed careers from bodybuilding to bobsledding and has recently made his appearance in the U.S Olympic team.

All-Round Athlete

Not everyone can just start participating in a sport and end-up at the Olympics.

So it’s no surprise to hear that Hakeem Abdul Saboor has been an elite-level athlete since high school; he competed in basketball, football, as well as athletics (both track & field).

In fact, this led his former coach to name this bro as ‘probably the best all-round athlete I have ever coached’.

Afterwards, he managed to perform as the running back for the University of Virginia football team (running a 40-yard-dash in 4.30 seconds).

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Bodybuilding Career

After suffering from numerous injuries, Hakeem was forced to cut his football career short. But it wasn’t long until he had found another passion – bodybuilding.

After submitting his photos to the 2012 Bodybuilding.com FIT USA, he was invited to compete at the contest.

On his experience, Hakeem said: “Flight, hotel, spray tan. I think they picked 16 or 20 of us from the nation. I ended up winning the people’s choice award.

“So that was everybody over the nation voting for which contestant they liked, their physique the best. That was before the show. I ended up placing fourth in the total competition.”

However, after placing 4th in the show, Hakeem stated that he wasn’t able to enter national competitions due to a lack of funding.

Bobsledding

Hakeem’s physical prowess made it onto the internet, with a video of him jumping and touching his head to a 10-foot ceiling going viral. This was quickly seen by the Brad DeWeese (former U.S Olympic committee head of physiology), and as a result, he was invited to an event.

After starting out in 2015, Hakeem made his first appearance in the U.S Olympic team this year. Not a bad change of sports, right bro?

Brad DeWeese recalled:

“Needless to say Hakeem had a perfect score in each event, even after becoming ill from nerves halfway through the test.

“Since then, I have had the honor of coaching Hakeem to 3 national team designations and finally to an Olympic team. In short, you never know who is watching.”

 Source : spotmebro.com