From Cairo\u2019s backstreets to the Olympics in Athens, Mohamed Reda opens up about discipline, family, and the academy where he now trains a new generation to dream with grit. \n<\/p>\n
Here is a conversation with Olympic boxer Mohamed Reda, written by someone whose dad has been telling this story for years…
\nGrowing up, my dad never ran out of stories about school pranks, scraped report cards, and friends who became family. But one story always stood out. He had a friend, a real friend, who went on to become an Olympic silver medallist in boxing. The guy\u2019s name was Mohamed Reda.<\/p>\n
For years, I thought the story might be exaggerated, until I looked him up and found out he\u2019s real, he\u2019s famous, and he runs a professional boxing academy in Cairo. And eventually, I got the chance to sit with him for an interview. My dad was probably more excited than Reda himself when I told him.<\/p>\n
Reda welcomed me with the same calm energy that has shaped his whole career. \u201cI\u2019m a son of El-Gamaliya, Haret El-Maghrabaleen, to be specific,\u201d he said. \u201cThat neighbourhood taught me that being a man doesn\u2019t come from how you look. It\u2019s how you carry yourself. People there helped each other just because it was the right thing to do. That\u2019s what I grew up around. That\u2019s what shaped me.\u201d
\nHe grinned. \u201cAlso, I still remember that foul cart on the corner. Mornings with foul and chilli oil\u2026 nothing like it.\u201d<\/p>\n
His entry into boxing wasn\u2019t really planned. \u201cIt looked like a coincidence. My coach lived in our neighbourhood and wanted to do my dad a favour. But the moment I put those gloves on, something clicked. I felt like I\u2019d found something I didn\u2019t know I was looking for.\u201d
\nReda still remembers the first real match. The nerves, the smell of sweat, the shouting coach, the shaky legs. \u201cIt was at Darb Al-Ahmar Club, my first championship. Everything about that day stayed with me. That was the first time I felt like I\u2019d started writing my name in the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s worn gloves with the Egyptian flag stitched into them. When I asked what that meant, his answer was simple. \u201cEvery time I put them on, I felt the weight of the country. You carry more than your own goals. It\u2019s an honour. A responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2004, he won silver for Egypt in the Athens Olympics. We chatted a lot about it, but what really stood out to me was him saying, \u201cPeople see the medal. What they don\u2019t see is the years of training, the injuries, the days I went to bed hungry, the nights I was in pain. They don\u2019t see what you give up. You miss moments with people you love because you believe in something no one else can see yet.\u201d
\nAfter Athens, everything changed – and didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople started calling me a star,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I stayed Mohamed from El-Gamaliya. What changed was the responsibility. What didn\u2019t change was my faith in God, my respect for my parents\u2026 and my love for foul with chilli oil.\u201d
\nDespite offers to go pro in Europe and the US, Reda chose to stay. \u201cI had an eye issue. And more than that, I wanted to set an example. I wanted to build something here. Not everything is about the money.\u201d
\nInstead, he built a boxing academy, which was the next step in a lifelong goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to train my son differently from how I was trained. I stopped competing, but I didn\u2019t stop dreaming. The academy became that dream, a place to shape people as much as athletes.\u201d
\nThe lessons go beyond the ring.
\n\u201cVictory\u2019s great,\u201d he said. \u201cBut what really matters is consistency. Show up when you’re tired. Respect your opponent. Respect yourself.\u201d
\nHe sees parts of himself in the new generation. What surprises him most is how quickly they grow. \u201cThis generation? They\u2019ve got energy. They\u2019ve got guts. All they need is someone to steer them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the last few years, more women have joined the sport. For Reda, this was an opportunity to evolve his training.
\n\u201cI started listening more. Every girl has her own story. Boxing, for some, carries the weight of protection, the spark of confidence, and the breath of freedom beyond the sport alone. We adjusted our training to focus on skill, self-defence and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
The academy now offers sessions exclusively for women. The experience has changed him as much as it\u2019s changed them.
\n\u201cGive a girl a safe environment, and she\u2019ll surprise you. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve seen. Greatness comes from will; gender has nothing to do with it. Every time one of them pushes through fear, she teaches me something new.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I asked about a moment from his career that stayed with him – even though it never made the headlines – he didn\u2019t hesitate.
\n\u201cAfter losing a championship, I came home feeling like I wasn\u2019t cut out for it any more. I told myself I was done. But when I walked in and saw my wife\u2019s eyes, she didn\u2019t say a word, but the belief she had in me\u2026 that\u2019s what brought me back. No one wrote about that. But that moment made me a champion.\u201dWhen I asked Reda about his definition of strength or power, he answered, \u201cStrength is getting back up when you fall. It\u2019s staying calm when someone tries to get under your skin. It\u2019s holding onto your humanity when things get tough. The real strength? It\u2019s in your heart and your head, not in your gloves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before I left, I asked what he hoped kids would take from his story.
\n\u201cI hope they see that champions rise through what they build, step by step. Built from every tough moment, every \u2018I can\u2019t\u2019 that turns into \u2018I did.\u2019 Boxing is a big school. It teaches you to face yourself. And if you\u2019ve got a dream – any dream – you\u2019ve got to believe it can happen. There\u2019s always room for another Mohamed Reda.\u201d
\nAfter the interview, I called my dad to tell him how it went. He said, \u201cI told you he was the real deal.\u201d And honestly? He really is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Cairo\u2019s backstreets to the Olympics in Athens, Mohamed Reda opens up about discipline, family, and the academy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-12087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}