Khalifa Musabeh Alkaabi’s talent nurtured by father and coach

Today’s qualification at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games signified a lot for all 64 archers but more so for six national squads in particular. 

Those of Algeria, Georgia, Guinea, Tunisia, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates were the first athletes from their respective nations to step onto a Youth Olympic Games archery shooting line.

The latter may be a more surprising name in archery for some, given the Emirates’ willingness to invest in sport, from making Manchester City Premier League and Champions League winners in football to hosting UFC events and Formula One Grands Prix.

Perhaps Dakar 2026 will mark a turning point in that investment, as Khalifa Musabeh Alkaabi and Huda Saleh Alali look to win historic medals for their country at the Abdoulaye Wade Stadium.

Alkaabi’s journey to the Senegalese capital, though, is as much his father’s story as it is his own.

“My father introduced me to the sport after seeing my cousins achieve good results in archery,” said Alkaabi. “Interestingly, my father had a dream of seeing me win a gold medal in archery. I found the sport interesting, and as I continued, I developed a real love for it.”

“It gave me confidence and motivated me to take it seriously, almost like a job. Although nobody else in my family participated in sport professionally, I’m the one who represents the family in sports.”

While his whole family awaits news of how the 16-year-old gets on this week, his father will be the one who “watches closely”, Alkaabi revealed, just as he has done since his son was nine.

A little over a year after he started, Alkaabi was regularly travelling up and down the Emirates, competing for his club, Al Madam Cultural Sports Club, before eventually joining the national youth teams.

His journey then took another step forward when he was selected for the United Arab Emirates’ under-18 recurve squad for the Limerick 2023 World Archery Youth Championships in Ireland as a 13 year old boy. He first competed internationally at the 2023 Veronica’s Cup before travelling to Limerick.

In 2024 and 2025, Alkaabi gained further international experience, competing at the 2024 Asian Youth Championships, the European Youth Cup and the 2025 World Youth Championships.

But as valuable as these experiences were to his development, he was unable to progress beyond the first round at any of those competitions.

That changed when head coach Lee Young Chul, who arrived in 2024, began focusing more closely on Alkaabi’s development and introduced him to shooting at 70 metres alongside the 60-metre distance.

“Moving from 60 to 70 metres was physically difficult, but it was also a mental challenge. I increased my physical training and the number of arrows I shot.”

“My coach also helped me improve my technique and my overall setup. Coach Lee Young Chul made a big difference in our development and performance as archers,” he added. “He changed our training methods, discipline, technique and mindset through his own coaching style.”

“Every coach has a different approach, and his methods have worked very well for me.”

The results in 2026 speak for themselves. He reached the quarterfinals of Veronica’s Cup and then won two matches at the Ruse 2026 European Youth Cup – the competition at which Alkaabi recorded the 615-point minimum qualification score required for Dakar.

With Young Chul hailing from South Korea, one of the leading nations in archery and home to numerous world-class coaches working internationally, he took Alkaabi and Alali to train there ahead of Dakar through the Asian Challenge and Joint Training Programme in August 2025.

“I would definitely like to return for a training camp in the future because Korea is one of the leading countries in archery,” commented Alkaabi. “I believe training there would help me develop further as an archer.”

Beyond the technical aspects, Alkaabi credits his improved ability to control his “nervousness” as one of the biggest changes since Young Chul arrived. This proved particularly useful when he competed as the United Arab Emirates’ only male recurve archer in archery at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games – his first senior competition.

“Of course, I felt nervous, but I believe a good athlete is someone who can control their nerves. Competing against experienced athletes taught me a lot and increased my confidence.”

Athletes who have represented their countries at two major Games by the age of just 16 are few and far between. Yet Alkaabi finds himself in this position.

His intelligence, as well as his hard work, has played a part in this achievement. He is currently enrolled at an applied technology school, balancing his studies with archery through online meetings with his teachers. He also speaks fluent English.

It is therefore no surprise that his father, Lee Young Chul and the United Arab Emirates archery federation have so much faith in him – not only to bring medals to the nation at major events such as Dakar, but also to help drive the growth of archery in a relatively small nation.

Alkaabi’s hometown, Al Madam, is also home to the historic Al Thuqaibah, an important Iron Age archaeological site known for discoveries dating back to about 1000 BC, including arrowheads.

Archery has deep roots in the area from which Khalifa Musabeh Alkaabi comes. A podium finish in Dakar would therefore almost seem like destiny, bringing archery back to an area where it has held significance for thousands of years – albeit for sport this time, rather than for hunting.

He became the tournament’s seventh seed with a strong 677 score on Friday’s qualification round, and will face Yugveer Jagadish Bissessur of Mauritius in the first round on Saturday.