The Gaza Man: A Palestinian’s quest to make it to the Olympics
Before every weightlifting competition, Mohammed Hamada thinks of Gaza.
He thinks of the destruction of his home and people, or of the mass grave he dug for residents of the building next to his.
These circumstances have created a special kind of athlete. One who had to eat animal food to survive, losing 18kg in the process. And one who ultimately had to leave Gaza and his family, so he could try and compete in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
“We came out of Gaza not to escape death,” the 22-year-old Palestinian weightlifter said.
“We left Gaza to complete our right to defend Palestine.”
Career on the rise
Mohammed comes from a family of weightlifters.
His nieces and nephews all participate in the sport and his older brother, Hussam, has trained him for years as Palestine’s national weightlifting coach.
At just 18, Mohammed made history as the first Palestinian Olympic weightlifter at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
He then won gold at the 2022 International Weightlifting Federation Junior World Championships in Greece.
The focus for Palestinians in Gaza became survival, as Israel relentlessly bombed the enclave, killing almost 40,000 people.
And yet, amid it all, Mohammed remained committed to making it to the Olympics.
His first hurdle: escaping Gaza.
The ‘passage of death’
Even as rockets and missiles rained down on their Gaza neighbourhood of Tuffah, Hussam continued to coach his brother.
Lifting weightlifting bars inside damaged buildings, the pair did what they could.
“Resources are not what make a champion. It’s the circumstances that make a champion,” Mohammed remarked.
But even with their ongoing preparation, it wasn’t until early 2024 that the Hamadas made the decision to try and make it to the Olympics.
Their father suggested they try to leave Gaza, and Hussam and Mohammed set off for the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
Walking for three days, Hussam described the journey as a “passage of death”.
“Leaving the house was like going to a funeral,” Hussam, who left behind a wife and three boys aged 13, 11 and six, said.
Despite the weight of Hussam’s decision to leave, he feels reassured knowing he has his family’s support.
“I feel bad and wish I hadn’t left them but they believe in what we’re doing, in the Olympic dream, and in Mohammed,” Hussam said.
“The Olympic journey is not just Mohammed’s dream but the dream of the whole family.”
For almost a month, the Hamada brothers waited in Rafah for news that would bring their dream one step closer – approval from the Egyptian government to leave war-torn Gaza.
After 23 days of waiting, the confirmation remarkably came through.
In early April, with little more than the clothes on their backs, Mohammed and Hussam bid farewell to Gaza and flew to Thailand, to compete in the IWF World Cup, held on the island of Phuket.
