Powhatan’s Hakeem Abdul-Saboor: From running back to bobsled runs

POWHATAN, Va. — Hakeem Abdul-Saboor thought that one day the NFL would be his game. After earning All-State honors as a running back for Virginia’s Powhatan High School, which in turn led to a college scholarship to play football, a devastating torn ACL would derail his plans to play at the professional level.

Still, Abdul-Saboor made an impact. No one was more impressed than his University of Virginia at Wise head coach Dewey Lusk.

“Hakeem is probably the best all-around athlete I have ever coached,” Lusk said.

Abdul-Saboor would then turn to another athletic pursuit, bodybuilding, at which he performed relatively well over several competitions. Still, he hadn’t yet found his calling, eventually becoming a professional quickness coach and personal trainer, a demanding line of work. Abdul-Saboor invested in his role with full on vim and vigor, which would continue to reap future benefits.

“As a trainer, I have a working knowledge of human anatomy and basic concepts of functional exercise,” he expressed on LinkedIn. “I have a certain set of skills and abilities for safe, effective and accurate fitness program design. A dedication to maintaining my own health and fitness goals was my goal in order for my clients to trust in me as their trainer. I was also able to maintain an enthusiastic demeanor while being supportive, so that my clients would stay focused and interested in my exercise program.”

Then dawned the day the U.S. Olympic committee official came calling. Having been astonished by a video showing Abdul-Saboor’s remarkable leaping ability and leg-spring explosion, he invited him to a sports combine for, of all things, bobsledding. Safe to say, it was a potential pursuit not heretofore registering even a faint blip on the gifted young athlete’s radar screen.

His curiosity peaked, Abdul-Saboor accepted the invitation.

Within a year, he had taken part in three World Cup bobsled events as a pusher, utilizing his powerful legs to generate as much speed as possible at the start of his team’s sled runs.

Abdul-Saboor had found his true calling. And it was one he discovered to be even more challenging than bodybuilding.

“Bobsled is definitely harder,” Abdul-Saboor said. “It’s just such a unique sport. You get athletes out here who you would think would be able to push fast and do well in bobsled. They might be fast but not strong. Or strong but not fast. Or even but just don’t have the technique to push the bobsled. You have to have the total package in order to become a good bobsledder.”

Abdul-Saboor realized a dream in 2018. And while it wasn’t the original one he had of playing pro football, it was no less exhilarating.  He was selected to represent Team USA at that year’s winter Olympics in South Korea, serving as the pusher for two different bobsled crews and registering a respectable pair of Top 21 finishes.

Now, four years later, Abdul-Saboor has an outstanding shot at once again becoming an Olympian, having been officially named as one of only eight pushers on the American Bobsled National Team. He is widely expected to be nominated by way of discretionary selection to compete at the Winter Games next month in Beijing, China.

For Abdul-Saboor’s part, perhaps this recent post on his Instagram page sums it up best.

“Day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different.”

Considering this extraordinary athlete’s multitextured reflection in the rear-view mirror of life, he would know.

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