Moroccan track legend Hicham El Guerrouj believes Arab governments and authorities must develop the way they’ve been managing sports in order to be able to produce Olympic champions like himself.
El Guerrouj, who has three Olympic medals – 1,500m and 5,000m gold won in Athens 2004 and 1,500m silver claimed in Sydney 2000 – and is a world record holder, is receiving the Mohammed bin Rashid Creative Sports Award in Dubai on Wednesday, in honour of his storied career in athletics.
The 43-year-old joined Tunisian four-time Olympic medallist Mohammed Gammoudi on stage on Tuesday, to take part in a talk labeled ‘Inspiring Experiences’ at the Sports Creativity Forum at Jumeirah Emirates Towers ahead of Wednesday’s awards ceremony.
“I am so happy to be here in Dubai to get the Mohammed bin Rashid Creative Sports Award. I’m honoured and humbled to be with many athletes like Mohammed Gammoudi, one of my favourites and a role model for me in the sport,” El Guerrouj told Sport360 on Tuesday.
Morocco has a long history in middle distance running, and its athletes have won a total of 19 medals in track and field at the Olympics, 18 of which were won between 1984 and 2012.
But El Guerrouj believes Morocco, and Arab countries in general, should be able to achieve much more on the world stage.
“We celebrate when we come back from the Olympics with two or three medals and that makes me very sad,” he says.
“The investment in sport much be changed, the mentality must change. We continue to manage sport the same way we managed it 20 years ago. This is why we need to adapt, we need to be focused in our goals. Our leaders must adapt to the current sports environment. All the medals we got in the Arab world are much less compared to the big resources we have, be it human or financial resources. I think we can get more and more.”
El Guerrouj’s 1,500m world record of 3:26.00 still stands a staggering 20 years after he claimed it in Rome.
He has run seven of the 10 fastest times in history of the 1,500m and the closest anyone has ever got to his mark Bernard Lagat 17 years ago when he clocked 3:26.34 in Brussels.
El Guerrouj describes how he managed to achieve so much success on the track, and whether he sees anyone breaking his two-decade-old record in the near future.
“My key elements is my passion for sport. The way I managed my career and how I invested in and focused on my career. I’m honoured and I was so happy to have a very good and strong family. My family were supporting me all the time. I used to have a very good and strong team, a very supportive team, as well as a good environment. Environment plays a good role in our career,” he explained.
“It’s my passion to support and to give and to push my body to the limit. Because there is no limit in sport. That’s what athletes must understand. If we want, we can. My record in the 1,500m still stands for 20 years, and that’s a result of something, a result of hard work, of passion of sport, of how we invest in our sport. If there is no passion, no love, no hard work, there is no result.
“I believe there are some good athletes from Kenya that can do something in 2018. Our global athletes must know exactly what they know, because running is managed in a professional way. If you want to get a world record, it’s how you work for it, if you want to be an Olympic champion… that’s why our athletes must be focused. If you want to be something bigger, you have to be more focused.”
Track and field has taken a hit since the retirement of superstar sprinter Usain Bolt and many feel it will be difficult for athletics to recover from the Jamaican’s absence.
El Guerrouj does not see it that way and says someone faster than Bolt is bound to come around.
“I don’t think so. God created six billion people in the world. God decided to create Usain Bolt as he created many athletes before. I think there will be more athletes in the future, maybe not in the next two or three years, but I believe we’ll see a new Usain Bolt maybe in five, 10 years. Faster than Usain Bolt,” said the North African.
“The support has changed. God creates good athletes and also technology is growing. Research and development are doing a strong job in sport. How we create the spikes, the clothes, everything is supporting the athlete to run faster. I think having good athletes, and good technology, and when we mix it we can do something bigger.”
The issue of doping continues to haunt athletics, with many athletes losing their medals after re-testing of samples, and Russia embroiled in a huge scandal.
Does El Guerrouj feel the sport is forever tainted?
“I believe we need to trust in our athletes. We need to continue to trust them. We cannot continue to judge athletes in a negative way. We need to judge them in how they invest their powers, how they are focused on their sport,” he says.
“Of course doping exists and we cannot stop doping just as we can’t stop crime in our society. Crime in society is like doping in sport. That’s why we need to make our organisation stronger to fight against doping but also we need to honour our clean athletes.
“We need to continue supporting clean athletes as we did in the past. The journalists and newspapers must change their mentality also, it must support the clean athletes as we support successful men and women in normal life.”
WINNERS OF THE 9TH MBR CREATIVE SPORTS AWARD
UAE Sports Personality
HE Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan (UAE)
Arab Sports Personality
HRH Princess Rima bint Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud (KSA)
UAE Outstanding Athlete
Omar Abdul Rahman Al AMoodi (Football)
UAE Referee
Ebrahim Yousef Al Mansoori (Beach Soccer)
UAE Coach
Saeed Bin Suroor Al Khaldi (Horse Racing)
UAE Organisation
UAE Jiu-Jitsu Federation
Arab Outstanding Athlete
Nour Atef El Sherbini (Egypt – Squash)
Arab Administrator
Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Al Gannas (KSA)
Arab Referee
Tarek Bin Mohamed Souei (Tunisia)
Arab Coach
Faris Ibrahim Al Assaf (Jordan)
Arab Team
Iraqi Youth Football Team U16
International Organisation (For Association of Summer Olympic International Federations)
Union Cycliste International (UCI)
International Organisation (For IOC-Recognised International Sports Federations) International Cricket Council (ICC)
Arab Emerging Athlete
Mohammed Mustafa Al Sowaiq (KSA – Taekwondo)
Distinguished Athlete
Farida Hisham Osman (Egypt – Swimming)
Difficult Challenges (People of Determination Category):
Abdellatif Baka (Algeria – Athletics)
Fouad Baka (Algeria – Athletics)
Olympic Creative Sports
Mohammed Gammoudi (Tunisia – Athletics)
Hicham El Guerrouj (Morocco – Athletics)
UAE Emerging Athlete (Nominees)
Hussain Yousuf Anwar (Football)
Ammar Mohammed Al Sedrani (Chess)
Maitha Abdulla Hasan (Judo)
Wadima Saeed Abdulla (Jiu-jitsu)
Omar Mohammed Alwan (Jiu-jitsu)
Abdalla Guhloom Al Maazimi (Taekwondo)
