The Mettleset Podcast

Hello, it is us again  Ever wondered what three things your favourite athlete would take with them on a deserted island? Or what their favourite food is? Or perhaps the worst advice they’ve ever received?  Yes, we know you can’t get enough of our guests. In our new bonus series More Mettle, we fire 10 fun questions at our in-studio guests to peel back their professional layers and get to...

Today’s guest is Safiya Al Sayegh, and if you don’t know that name yet - where have you been hiding? Remember it because this Emirati cyclist is the heroine we need!  Safiya is the first Emirati and first Arab woman to join a WorldTour Pro Team, UAE Team ADQ. The 21-year-old athlete kicked off her cycling career in 2016 and turned pro last year, displaying remarkable growth under the guidance...

Hello Dawn here,  Today we have a special bonus episode that’s a little different to our usual athlete interviews as we touch upon the business of sport and sport leadership here in the United Arab Emirates.   As someone who’s worked in sports communications for over 11 years, I recently had the opportunity to go to the Leaders in Sport Business Summit in Abu Dhabi held on 1-2 March...

Emirati CrossFitter Shahad Budebs doesn’t shy away from telling women - “Let’s get bulky”.  Because getting swole is exactly what will get you to the top of the sport. The four-time Fittest in the UAE athlete sits down with us in-studio days before she dives into her intense training for the  CrossFit Games semi-finals in June. The 28-year-old, who only began CrossFit in 2017 after being...

Ultra running and adventure sports athlete Ivana Kolaric is back with us for this episode where she talks about her most recent and very exciting multi-day, non-stop adventure in New Zealand - Godzone - also known as the largest expedition race in the world.  For those of you who haven’t heard our first chat with Ivana on the podcast where she tells us what makes her push her limits in sports...

Hi Dawn here,  As you may know, I recently took part in the Race Around Rwanda, a 1000km self supported cycling race in early February. It was my fourth ultra cycling race in total, and my first since 2019. Spoiler alert, it was also my second scratch or DNF.  I did make it 712 km along the route and I’m detailing my experience in an upcoming episode.  But before that, I had the cha...

Hi Dawn here,  As you may know, I recently took part in the Race Around Rwanda, a 1000km self supported cycling race in early February. It was my fourth ultra cycling race in total and my first since 2019. Spoiler alert, it was also my second scratch or DNF.  I did make it 712 km along the route and I’m detailing my experience in an upcoming episode.  But before that, I had the chan...

Our guest on today’s episode has had an illustrious career in gymnastics, starting at a young age when most Olympics hopefuls spend uncountable hours in the gym perfecting routines to now coaching young athletes in the sport - coming full circle in her sport.  Sarah Mercer, who is from South Africa, represented Great Britain in the 1992 Olympics that took place in Barcelona. That was the ulti...

We have hosted athletes from across the Middle East, and some of the common factors among them has been their growth mindset, positive competitive spirit and, importantly, the guidance of good coaches and mentors in their sports.  Maria Kavussanu, a professor in sports and exercise psychology at the University of Birmingham in the UK has dedicated several years to understanding what caus...

I am just back from Race Around Rwanda and Afshan and I are busy working on a whole bunch of new episodes for you. Expect a full race debrief from me and other women on the race, as well as a host of new athletes, new sports, new stories and new perspectives.  We’ll be back next Monday with a brand new episode but until then we wanted to reshare one of our first and favorites with Linda Kroke...

In this episode with our guest Faranak Partoazar, a mountain biker from Iran with several accolades to her name, Dawn and I want to first acknowledge the challenges and obstacles women in Iran continue to face today, which makes Faranak’s journey into mountain biking even more compelling. The safety of our guests, who come from across the region, is of utmost importance to us, and we have avo...

July 22, 2022 – On this day our guest, Nelly Attar, became the first Arab woman to summit K2.   This is historic for the Arab world. Not only is this the world’s second-highest peak after Mount Everest but is also one of the most dangerous mountains to climb. With its peak 8,611 meters high, located in the Karakoram Range in Pakistan, this is famously known as the Savage Mountain. It was a ch...

Former Paralympian Jessica Smith joins us on the episode for a very honest discussion on diversity, and inclusion for people with disabilities.  As an elite swimmer who represented  Australia in the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, Jessica isn’t a stranger to the pressures of performance and scrutiny. But when it comes to athletes with disabilities, this is compounded by the lack of&nbsp...

Dubai-based mountaineer Tima Deryan joins us today, a month after she became the first Lebanese woman to ski the last degree of the South Pole and only a few months away from skiing the last degree of the North Pole. This will conclude her seven-year expedition to achieve the Explorers Grand Slam. It’s a mountaineering challenge that only about 73 people have completed of which fewer than 20 are w...

So hopefully you have listened to our earlier episode ( Episode 16 ) this week where we chat with my coach Niel Copeland on all things ultra-cycling. Well, almost all things. One major aspect of these long distance races is eating … eating a lot, a lot, a lot of food.  So today, that’s why we’re bringing you a bonus episode on Ultra Eating.  We start off with a quick check-in on my train...

Hello! Dawn here.  So you want to be an ultra-cyclist? Well, maybe you do, maybe you are one already, or maybe you’re just curious to know how one can race distances that range from 700 km to up to over 7000 km, all self supported.  Well, today’s episode aims to share a good overview of the sport and how you can get involved as I speak with my coach, Niel Copeland, one of the world’s mos...

If you’ve been paying attention, triathlons are having a moment in the Middle East. More and more athletes from all over the region are taking up the sport.  Equally, Saudi Arabia is seeing a booming interest in sports, especially triathlons, and our guest today has and continues to play a key role in developing it in the region.  This unintentional trailblazer is Dr. Dina Al Tayeb, who...

Hey Team,  Happy New Year! It’s a whole new year for all of us, and for The Mettleset Podcast and what better way to start it than with a little reflection and all of the lessons that we’re taking with us into 2023.  2022 was phenomenal for us - The Mettleset was born and with it, we shared stories from athletes from across the Middle East representing all sorts of sports. They’ve pushed...

Our last full episode of 2023 features the energetic and joyful Mo Rahma. Mo brings heart to everything he does, which at the time of recording includes 60 different sport disciplines… and counting.  Mo’s sport journey started in childhood has many twists and turns and he’s represented the UAE in football as a youth, and later rugby and surfing all while managing ulcerative colitis, a chronic...

Hello! Dawn here.  In case you missed it, I am training for the Race Around Rwanda, a 1000km self-supported ultra cycling race, scheduled to start on the 5th of February, 2023.  It just so happens that our guest today, one of the race organizers, Simon De Schutter, is a friend of mine. I first met Simon back in 2019 as we traveled to Oman together for what was for each of us, our first u...

Today’s episode features a real life mermaid. Nataliia Zharkova is a world record breaking freediver and five-time World Champion but she didn’t find freediving, freediving found her.  Co-host Dawn first met Nataliia in 2021 when she worked with the team at Deep Dive Dubai and took an introductory freedive lesson with her. Yes, you too can train with this phenomenal athlete in Dubai!  Wh...

The Mettleset’s bonus episodes, which complement our regular Monday interviews with athletes from the region, are out on Fridays. Our bonus episodes will bring to you a range of trending and topical discussions around sporting news, races and events, along with our co-founders Dawn and Afshan’s own training and upcoming races. Hi Listeners, it’s Afshan  This bonus episode concludes our series...

We couldn’t let the FIFA World Cup pass us by without a chat about football   In this episode we chat with Georgia Adderley, one of the four Co-Founders of Onyx FC, the UAE’s first fully female owned football club.  Despite being from the football-mad UK, Georgia didn’t take up football until moving to Dubai. It was in Dubai that she also found friendship, fun and community, as well...

Our guest today, Dania Akeel, is the first motorsport athlete on our podcast.  And it's fitting since she has a lot of firsts herself:   The first Saudi woman to hold a National Competition License for Speedbike Circuit Racing. The first Saudi woman to participate in an international Rally Competition.  The first woman globally to win an FIA Cross Country World Cup in the T3 Ca...

The Mettleset’s bonus episodes, which complement our regular Monday interviews with athletes from the region, are out on Fridays. Our bonus episodes will bring to you a range of trending and topical discussions around sporting news, races and events, along with our co-founders Dawn and Afshan’s own training and upcoming races. Our Bonus Episode today follows our interview with Zeinab Rezaie, the f...