Before every weightlifting competition, Mohammed Hamada thinks of Gaza.

He thinks about the destruction of his home and his people or the mass grave he dug for the residents of the neighboring building.

These circumstances have created a special type of athlete. One who had to eat animal food to survive and lost 18 kilos in the process. And one who ultimately had to leave Gaza and his family so that he could try to take part in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

“We came from Gaza, not to escape death,” said the 22-year-old Palestinian weightlifter.

“We left Gaza to exercise our right to defend Palestine.”

Career on the rise

Mohammed comes from a family of weightlifters.

His nieces and nephews all practice the sport and his older brother Hussam has been training him for years as the Palestinian national weightlifting coach.

At just 18 years old, Mohammed made history as the first Palestinian Olympic weightlifter at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

He then won gold at the 2022 International Weightlifting Federation Junior World Championships in Greece.

Mohammed’s career was on the rise, but Israel’s war on Gaza, which began on October 7 following a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, immediately brought him back down to earth.

For Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, survival was now the priority while Israel relentlessly bombed the enclave, killing nearly 40,000 people.

And despite all this, Mohammed remained true to his goal of making it to the Olympics.

His first hurdle: escaping from Gaza.

The “Transition of Death”

Even as rockets and missiles rained down on their Gaza neighborhood of Tuffah, Hussam continued to train his brother.

The couple did what they could by lifting weightlifting bars in damaged buildings.

“It is not the resources that make a champion. It is the circumstances that make a champion,” Mohammed noted.

But despite their ongoing preparations, it was not until early 2024 that the Hamadas decided to attempt to participate in the Olympic Games.

Their father suggested that they try to leave Gaza, and Hussam and Mohammed made their way to the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.

Hussam described the three-day trek as a “transition of death.”

“Leaving the house was like going to a funeral,” said Hussam, who left behind a wife and three boys, ages 13, 11 and 6.

“Tareq – he hugged me and didn’t let go,” Hussam said of his youngest son. “Jude and Khamis cried.”

Although Hussam’s decision to leave the country is difficult, he is reassured knowing that his family is by his side.

“I feel bad and wish I hadn’t left them, but they believe in what we do, in the Olympic dream and in Mohammed,” Hussam said.

“The Olympic trip 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: permission from the Egyptian government to leave the war-torn Gaza Strip.

Remarkably, after 23 days of waiting, the confirmation came.

At the beginning of April, Mohammed and Hussam, wearing little more than the clothes on their backs, left Gaza and flew to Thailand to take part in the IWF World Cup, which was being held on the island of Phuket.

It was the last qualifying event before the 2024 Olympic Games.

Qualification for the Games

Even if Mohammed had left Gaza, it would be difficult for him to qualify for the Olympic Games in Paris.

To get a wildcard into the sport of weightlifting, Mohammed had to take part in two qualifying events, including the 2024 IWF World Cup in Thailand.

But even without the war in Gaza, Mohammed’s preparations were full of complexities.

“For weightlifters, strength supplements are really important,” Mohammed said.

“These are not available in Gaza.”

When Mohammed attended a training camp in the United Arab Emirates in 2022, he purchased an over-the-counter supplement to maintain his weight and strength.

“We later found out that the supplements were counterfeit and contained banned ingredients, even though those ingredients were not listed on the supplement packaging,” he said.

“(I) paid the price for something I (knowingly) did not commit,” he said. “In the end, it was considered ‘accidental use’ of the substance.”

Mohammed was temporarily suspended.

The IWF World Cup in Thailand would be his first competition in more than two years.

And despite his relief to be back on the international sporting stage, the scars of war were as visible as ever.

His severe weight loss was an obstacle in a sport that relies so heavily on muscle and strength.

“We only left Gaza ten days ago and I barely had time to regain my strength,” Mohammed said between repetitions in a training studio.

Surrounded by men and women in peak physical condition, Muhammad remembered what he needed to eat to survive.

“For nearly 164 days we have eaten foods that are not fit for humans… including animal foods.”

On the day of the competition, Mohammed’s disadvantage was unmistakable.

He lifted 100 kg in the snatch and 120 kg in the clean and jerk. His personal best is much higher – in 2021 he lifted 141 kg in the snatch and 171 kg in the clean and jerk.

But Mohammed and Hussam knew before the competition that he would not qualify based on his performance alone.

Rather, the escape from Gaza and the trip to Thailand was about taking part in the last Olympic qualifying match.

Although he only took part in one qualifying event, Mohammed received the support of major sports associations.

“We believe that an exception will be made for Mohammed so that he can participate in the Olympic Games,” said Nader Jayousi, technical director of the Palestinian Olympic Committee.

Jayousi, who has known the Olympian for years, said he believed in Mohammed’s exceptional talent as an athlete.

“But when circumstances like this exist – famine, starvation, weight loss, death… I don’t think we apply strict admission criteria,” he said.

“He is a representative of an entire nation.”

A long wait

After the World Cup in Thailand, the Hamada brothers moved to Doha, Qatar.

With the support of the Palestinian, Qatari and International Olympic Committees, Mohammed began to gain weight and regain his strength.

Gaza was always at the forefront of Hamadas’ rigorous training program.

Strikes continued in her Tuffah neighborhood, with little news from her parents and Hussam’s children.

Hussam’s sons sent video updates as they stood outside their razed neighborhood.

“I want to assure you that we are fine after the shelling of the mosque,” ​​13-year-old Khamis can be heard saying in a video.

“The truth is that the situation is more difficult than I imagined,” Mohammed said. “From the first moment I left Gaza, I was obsessed with the fear of losing my loved ones.”

“When I was in the middle of the events, the impact was not so strong – but now I feel a kind of fear, worry and sadness,” he added.

The Hamadas sacrificed proximity to their family for Mohammed’s Olympic goal.

But it was not to be.

On June 6, the IWF published a list of athletes who received a wildcard for the Paris Games.

Sitting across from each other in their hotel room in Doha, Hussam scanned the website and noticed that Mohammed’s name was missing.

“Everything is fine,” the coach said calmly.

Mohammed sat in silence for several minutes and finally added: “This is just the beginning for us.”

Although Mohammed will not be competing in the Olympic weightlifting competition this week, he firmly believes that this disappointment is just another obstacle.

The brothers have now moved to Bahrain and continue to train five days a week in preparation for the next Summer Olympics.

“We have the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles,” Mohammed said. “We will come back stronger than before.”