Wasim Abusal (; born 14 June 2004) is a Palestinian

featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, ...

boxer. He competed at the

2024 Paris Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

Career

Abusal started boxing at the age of 12 in his hometown of

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ) is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, that serves as the administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of abov ...

, encouraged by his father. He competed in the featherweight category at the

2022 Asian Games The 2022 Asian Games (), officially the 19th Asian Games () and also known as Hangzhou 2022 ( zh, c=, s=杭州2022, labels=no), were a continental multi-sport event which was held from 23 September to 8 October 2023 in Hangzhou, China. The ...

in China, finishing 9th. In 2023, he took part in the

IBA World Boxing Championships IBA World Boxing Championships may refer to: * IBA Men's World Boxing Championships The IBA Men's World Boxing Championships are biennial amateur boxing competitions organised by the International Boxing Association (IBA, previously known as AI ...

in Uzbekistan. He then won a bronze medal in his category at the

2023 Arab Games The 2023 Arab Sports Games was the 13th edition of the Arab Games, an international multi-sport event which took place in Algeria, between 5 and 15 July 2023. The event included 22 sports with all 22 members of the Arab League participating. For ...

in Algeria. Despite not qualifying from the world tournament, Abusal was given a wildcard to represent

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

at the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

in Paris, France, becoming the first Palestinian boxer to compete at an Olympic event. He was eliminated during the round of 32. He also served as Olympic flagbearer for his country alongside swimmer Valerie Tarazi at the opening ceremony.

Training

Abusal welcomed the

IOC The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based in L ...

's decision to invite him to the 2024 Olympics, with his coaches lamenting the obstacles posed to his training and competition schedule by the

Israeli occupation of Palestine The occupied Palestinian territories, also referred to as the Palestinian territories, consist of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip—two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been occupie ...

and the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

. His main coach,

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

-based Gazan Ahmad Harara, follows his training via remote connection due to the inability to travel to the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

with a Gaza ID, and only meets him during international competitions. Because of movement restrictions within the West Bank and the weakness of the Palestinian passport, Abusal is also unable to meet regularly with boxing partners of his weight, with the only other boxer in Ramallah weighing 71 kg, and to attend all tournaments in Palestine and abroad. The last part of his Olympic training took place in

Allonnes, Sarthe Allonnes () is a commune in the Sarthe department in the region of Pays de la Loire in north-western France. It is a southwestern suburb of Le Mans. Population See also *Communes of the Sarthe department The following is a list of the 352 ...

Notes

References

External links

* Living people 2004 births Palestinian male boxers Featherweight boxers Olympic boxers for Palestine Boxers at the 2024 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Ramallah 21st-century Palestinian sportsmen Boxers at the 2022 Asian Games Arab Games bronze medalists {{Asia-boxing-bio-stub