Nibal Ahmed is an upcoming rising star in Badminton. As a young boy, he was interested in football and had keen interest in playing the sport. However, his father enrolled him in badminton practices and while he initially did not like it, as he continued to invest in time and energy, he grew to love the sport. His first trophy for badminton was winning third place in an interschool badminton tournament.

Nibal then proceeded onto joining the Youth Development Program (YDP) in order to pursue a career in badminton. He was selected for the Maldives National team in 2016 and went onto play for the country in an international tournament in 2017.

At just 19, under his belt is a bronze medal in the team event in the Indian Ocean Island Games (IOIG) which he won in 2019. He dreams of qualifying to the Olympics as well as winning a singles medal in the IOIG.

Nibal mentioned that the role model that he looked up to during his badminton career, is Maldives number one badminton player, Ajfan Rasheedh. They now, train together and Nibal was happy to tell us that he continues to learn from Ajfan.

During our interview, Nibal expressed that the beginning of his career, specifically, the first five years were the most difficult for him as it was very stagnant. He was not able to advance in his badminton career and he explained that he felt disheartened by it. However, he further mentioned that, with the constant support from him family and friends, he continued playing and was able to come to the position he is at right now. Moreover, Nibal said that he was playing badminton while studying, which proved to be another obstacle, but he managed to overcome with his persistence.

Nibal believes that Maldives badminton has the potential to develop to an international level. He further explained saying that Maldivian badminton players are skilled and are good. He pointed out that there are already a few institutions that can create more potential players in Maldives such as Badminton Association, YDP, as well as private academies.

Nibal was also pleased to mention that the future of Maldivian badminton is bright as there are many young potential players who are starting to play the sport at the age of 11 or 12. Additionally, due the several programs in the atolls, he has strong hopes that it will create more opportunities for players to begin their career and eventually reach to the standard of a national level player.