Fathimath Dheema Ali's gold medals for Maldives in table tennis is a topic of discussion among Maldivians.

Dheema is an accomplished athlete from Maldives who has won a competitive qualifier competition and has the honor of being the only Maldivian to have qualified for the Olympics. Many Maldivians have seen her being presented an award by the President on their televisions after winning the Best Athlete Award every year in the nation's biggest sporting event.

In reality however, Dheema's success is not only seen in the table tennis hall and sports award ceremonies.

It was seen last night during the biggest award ceremony for school students.

This was during the High Achievers' Award 2025 ceremony when President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu presented her with an award.

She placed first globally and in Maldives in English, with the highest school education award she was presented with speaking volumes.

Dheema showed that it is possible to be accomplished in sports and not let it affect her studies.

According to her mother Aishath Waheeda, Dheema sacrificed a lot to keep her sports and academics at the same level.

Aishath Waheeda said Dheema studied on her own to take the O Level examinations and that she was met with many obstacles. The most important years of her time in secondary school were spent studying via an online tuition model.

Some of the teachers who took classes for her would stop classes, resulting in Dheema needing to find new teachers.

Dheema's name was not on some teachers' list of top priority students due to her not being a school student. Waheeda said this resulted in a lack of importance toward Dheema even despite there being higher expenses.

"This was very difficult. Even with private tuition, the teachers place a higher priority, focus and conduct tuition for the students they teach at school," said Waheeda.

It is because of this that teachers place less importance on Dheema within their schedule.

Dheema's family stated there were a lot of instances where online classes were canceled when Dheema had gotten ready to take the class.

Waheeda stated that because of this, they have had to change teachers frequently, in order to find teachers who will prioritize Dheema as private tuition requires a higher expense.

There were technical difficulties due to teachers being changed so close to one another.

"But thankfully, I am happy with Dheema's results even with all those difficulties," said Waheeda.

After the 2025 O Levels, Dheema is currently attending the foundation program at Malaysia's Taylor's University. She is studying in the program while simultaneously taking on sports training.

"She is studying there while going for table tennis training. She studies really hard there as well. Results are also good. She has received a Dean's Award from the college as well," as was said by Waheeda.

Dheema left for Malaysia after last night's award ceremony. She is moving forward with table tennis training and her studies without any disruptions.