IWF120y/82 – 2021: Meso Hassona becomes Qatar’s first Olympic champion

His name is Fares Ibrahim El-Bakh, but everyone knows him in the weightlifting world as Meso Hassona. Born in June 1998 and representing Qatar, he descends from an Egyptian family deeply connected to the sport: his grandfather was a successful lifter and his father took part in three consecutive editions of the Olympic Games – 1984, 1988, and 1992. In the first of these appearances, he is fifth. Proud of this tradition, Meso starts the sport at nine and becomes a full-time weightlifter in 2012, only aged 14. In 2016, he is ‘revealed’ at the highest level, with the bronze medal at the IWF World Junior Championships, and the seventh place at the Rio Olympics. In 2017, he is a junior world champion and third in the senior IWF showcase. After a silver medal at the Worlds in 2019, he qualifies for the Tokyo 2020ne Games in the 96kg category. In the Snatch, he lifts 177kg (the fourth best result in the field), but then excels in the Clean & Jerk, clearly dominating operations with a successful 225kg lift, for a Total of 402kg, an Olympic record. With this achievement, he became the first Olympic champion in the history of Qatar (all sports included) – one day later, the country celebrates its second golden star, Mutaz Barsham (in Athletics). They remain as of today, the only two Olympic champions for Qatar. After a gold medal at the 2022 IWF World Championships and a smooth qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Meso is clearly the man to beat in the 102kg category in the French capital. Things won’t go as planned – the Qatari ace fails all his Snatch attempts at 178kg and withdraws from the C&J section. Some months later, in December 2024, he bounces back at the IWF Worlds in Manama (BRN), with a silver medal in the same category (174-225-399).