Wrestling: Egyptian Olympic medallist Mohamed ‘Kesho' Ibrahim retires - Omni sports
'After many years of toil, challenges and victories … I have decided to officially announce my retirement,' the 27-year-old wrote in an emotional post on social media. 'Wrestling was more than a sport – it was my life, my passion and my support in the hardest times.'
Kesho has not announced any reasons behind this decision, which seems premature, but he has been under the radar since his return from a disappointing campaign in the Paris Olympics.
Ibrahim burst onto the global stage in Tokyo, taking bronze in the 67 kg class with a last-gasp win over 2018 world champion Artem Surkov of Russia. The medal ended Egypt's nine-year wrestling drought and drew instant comparisons with Gaber, the Athens 2004 gold-medallist he idolised. He became the 8th Egyptian wrestler to claim an Olympic medal.
The road to a second Olympic podium proved turbulent. A dispute with the Egyptian Wrestling Federation sidelined him for about 18 months after Tokyo. He returned in 2023, crashed out in the round of 32 at the world championships and scraped into Paris 2024 by taking bronze at a last-chance qualifier in May.
In Paris, his campaign unravelled early with a round-of-16 defeat by Azerbaijan's Hasrat Jafarov. Controversy followed when French police detained him in August 2024 over an allegation that he groped a woman in a bar. Prosecutors dropped the case for lack of evidence, but Egypt's Olympic Committee (EOC) suspended him for breaching team rules by failing to return to camp that night.
'Thank you to every coach who helped me, every teammate who stood by me, and every fan who cheered,' Ibrahim said, adding that wrestling 'taught me to be a man before a champion.'
Nicknamed 'The Tank' for his stocky power, Mohamed 'Kesho' Ibrahim took up wrestling at five and rose quickly through Egypt's age-group ranks, piling up nearly 20 continental medals. Guided by the example of his idol Karam Gaber – the 2004 Olympic champion and 2012 silver-medallist – he became the first Egyptian, Arab or African to secure an Olympic berth via the senior world championships when a fifth-place finish in 2019 punched his ticket to Tokyo.
Besides his Tokyo medal, Ibrahim won a host of titles, including back-to-back U-23 world titles (2018, 2019), African Championship golds in 2020 and 2023, and the 2024 All-Africa Games crown.
(For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.)
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