Moroccan Women's Boxing Team Prepares for Paris Olympics

Can Morocco's women boxers punch their way to Paris Gold?

Moroccan Women's boxing team steps up training for Paris 2024 /

By Mohamed Bahaa

The Moroccan national women's boxing team held a training camp at the Vittel Omnisports Preparation Center in France from July 11 to 20, in preparation for the 33rd Olympic Games to be held in Paris 2024.

A statement from the Royal Moroccan Boxing Federation mentioned that the national team, which has secured qualification for the Paris Olympics 2024, includes world champion Khadija El-Mardi in the (75 kg) weight category, Widad Bertal in the (54 kg) weight category, and Yasmine Moutaki in the (50 kg) weight category.

The Royal Moroccan Boxing Federation has also added that the national athletes are competing in this global event alongside boxers from Turkey, Poland, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Thailand, Tunisia, Vietnam, Serbia, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Algeria, Norway, Hungary, and China.

The Moroccan women champions are accompanied by a team consisting of coaches Abdelhak Achik and Youssef Sarour, under the supervision of the technical director of the national teams, Othman Fadli.

During Tokyo 2020 Olympics women’s boxing competitions, Turkey won its first boxing gold medal in the Welterweight category while China won the silver medal, Japan secured its first gold medal in the featherweight category from the Philippines who received the silver medal. Additionally, Bulgaria won its gold medal against Turkey in the women's flyweight category, Cuba and Great Britain were the only two countries to win multiple gold medals in the women’s Olympic boxing competitions.

It is worth mentioning that the Moroccan national men's team has won three bronze medals in the Olympic boxing competitions.

The current women's team coach, Abdelhak Achik, won the bronze medal in the featherweight category at the Seoul 1988 Olympics competitions. Tahar Tamsamani also won a bronze medal in the same weight category at the Sydney 2000 Olympics competitions, in addition to the most recent bronze medal won by Mohamed Rabii at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics competitions in the Welterweight category.