Qatar's history-maker Fares targets more Olympic glory

“It was like the time stopped for me,” Fares Ibrahim said as the reigning Olympic weightlifting champion recalled the moments of his glory at the Tokyo Games.

In an exclusive interview with The Peninsula on the occasion of National Sport Day, Fares said the feeling of becoming Qatar’s first-ever Olympic gold medallist will remain as the best memory of his career.       

The 23-year-old dominated the men’s 96kg category, setting two new Games records on the way to gold in Tokyo. The 2019 world silver medallist was in supreme form as he set new marks for the clean and jerk (225kg) and total lift (402kg).  

During the interview, the Olympic champion spoke about the role his family particularly his father and coach Ibrahim – also a former Olympian –  played in making him a world class athlete. 

Fares also praised the support of the Qatar Olympic Committee President H E Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani in shaping his career.   

The star weightlifter said he aims to collect more medals like Qatar’s high jump superstar Mutaz Barshim, who has clinched one gold and two silver medals at the Games to become Qatar’s most decorated Olympian. 

Following are the excerpts of his interview:    

Q: Qatar is one of the very few countries which celebrates the National Sport Day. What are your thoughts on that? 

A: This is one of the greatest things we have in our country and all of us are proud of it. It’s the day when all communities come together to take part in sports activities. It gives people idea of how different sports are and what challenges athletes face in mastering those sports. This day encourages you to start a healthy and a nice life. 

Q: On this occasion, what message would you like to give to people in Qatar? 

A: I always encourage people through the social media and even the friends to go and try different sports. It makes you understand sports and encourage you to try and make your next generation, your kids, nieces or nephews to start sports.

Q: You have been winning accolades over the years and reached the pinnacle when you won an Olympic gold in Tokyo. Can you recall the feeling of your Olympic triumph?

A: It’s the moment that I have no words to describe. When people ask about my feeling I tell them that it was like the time stopped for me. The moment I dropped the weight I knew that I have won the gold medal and became the first ever gold medallist for my country. The happiness of the people around me and His Excellency Sheikh Joaan, it was an amazing moment. It was a feeling that I cannot describe it even in million words. This achievement gives me the urge to try again, train harder to get moment like this one more time. 

Q: You will be remembered as the first-ever Olympic gold medallist for Qatar. It must be something great for you? 

A: It is such a great honour for me. I am really honoured and glad to have it and achieve it. I think it’s one of the things that I will be saying to all generations coming that I was the first Olympic gold medallist, a huge honour indeed. 

Q: Can you recall your build-up for Tokyo Olympics, like how many hours a day you trained and what kind of challenges you faced during your preparations?

A: It wasn’t the hard work only for a year or two. We started targeting an Olympic gold in 2012. That was when I sat with my dad and said, look, we need to win an Olympic gold. Since then, we’ve been training really, really hard. The first four years we didn’t take one day off. And when I say that I mean it, I am not exaggerating, not one day off. Even on the day when I was sick, you know, like having cold or fever. We still went to the training and still trained hard. So that was our very long term plan. One year before the Olympics, we increased our training camps. It was a really long plan and it was successful. 

Q: Mutaz Barshim is the most successful Qatari Olympian. What are your targets as a Team Qatar athlete? 

A: My goal now is to achieve more Olympic medals. Mutaz is one of the greatest athletes we have, not just in Qatar or in the Middle East, but in the entire world. We all admire him and we look up to him. I look up to him and I see how many medals he got. And I say, like, Yeah, I want to be like him. I want to be there. 

Q: How did you come into weightlifting and at what age you took up this sport? 

A: I started weightlifting since I was nine, so basically I’ve been a weightlifter like my entire life. I was born in a weightlifting family, my dad, my brothers, my uncles, my grandparents, they have all been into weightlifting. All of them love weightlifting, competing and always talking about weightlifting. I wanted to be like them because they were my heroes. 

Q: What role have your father played in making you a world class weightlifter?

A: I think I would give my mom and my dad the biggest credit. My dad has always been there on my back in my hardest times. We are in one of the hardest sport which needs a lot of patience and a lot of dedication and the hard work. You always get a lot of ups and downs. I would rather say that my entire family, not just my dad, supported me as a group. I give them most of the credit for my success. 

Q: How do you see the support of Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) under the leadership of His Excellency Sheikh Joaan in your development as an Olympic champion?    

A: His Excellency Sheikh Joaan and QOC have a really big credit. The support we received from him was really incredible, just really beautiful. He’s always there, always communicating with us, the athletes and sees our needs. At the competition venue (in Tokyo), he was there watching the competition, cheering and encouraging me. He was sitting in front of me in the first row and it was one of the greatest things. The support from the QOC and the Qatar Weightlifting Federation played a big role and I give them really big thanks for what I have achieved. 

Q: You said you are eyeing more success, and in this regard which competitions are you planning to compete this year?   

A: Our target for this year is the Asian Games. Basically in weightlifting our qualification systems start two years before the Olympics. So this year is the first when we will start to collect points to qualify for the Games. We have few competitions this year. So we are targeting the Asian Games, which is going to be held in China in September. And after that, we have the World Championships, also in China in November. Those are our targets which we’re working on.

We need to score a really good total so we can collect maximum points to qualify for Paris Olympics in 2024. 

Q: We have seen you increasing your weight category to 102kg in recent competitions. Would you continue competing in that category? 

A: Last year, the weightlifting categories have been changed. They removed some weight classes and added different weight classes. We had to choose from the new weight classes. We picked the 102kg, so we basically increased our weight around like six or seven kilos. We need to increase those weights as a muscle, which is a new task for us. We are trying to get to this weight class and score our best total. It’s going to be really, really hard battle among the top athletes in the world.

Q: Tokyo Olympics was Qatar’s best-ever Games with an unprecedented two gold medals and a bronze medal. What would you like to comment on this achievement?     

A: I believe that Qatar is going in the right direction through their support to the athletes, their encouragement to them. Not just through the Olympic Committee or the federations, through the country itself, through the people who live in the country. Once we returned from the Olympics, we saw their happiness and how people were celebrating for us. It’s a great push not just for us, even for the young athletes, who are coming up. They want to be like us and it’s such a great thing that Qatar is going through. I believe in the next Games we’re going to have a great, great performance from all the sports.