From clothes factory to Olympic ring, Egypt's new gold medallist crowns a long tradition of wrestling stars from the second city He may only have turned 25 yesterday, but Karam Gaber knows how to throw his weight around. He also knows how to throw world champions: last week in Greece, we watched him as he flung Mehmet Ozal of Turkey and Ramaz Nozadze of Georgia around the ring as if they were stuffed practice dummies that neophyte wrestlers use in training. Gaber needed only one minute and nine seconds to toss silver medallist Ozal three times during an 11-0 semi-final decision, thus avenging the defeat he had suffered at his hands in the 2002 World finals. It took him slightly longer, but not much -- three minutes and 22 seconds -- to throw junior world champion Nozadze three times in a 12-2 decision for the gold. By doing so, Gaber became the first Egyptian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in 56 years. Results like these are occasionally seen in mismatches early in the pool rounds. They seldom occur once you reach the stage where there are medals at stake. Wrestling is a sport where championships are most often conquered through a mass of details -- clinches, reverses, and various subtle displays of strength and technique. No wonder then that Gaber celebrated his victory with a cartwheel and a backflip. Not even his coach was immune from the treatment after running onto the mat: Gaber picked him up, tossed him over his shoulder and pinned him, too. "I'm glad I was the one who made 70 million Egyptians smile again after all these years," he told the press after his victory. "It has been a long time for all of us. I know the people were disappointed in this Games in particular, especially in the first week, but my boxing colleagues made up for it. And I'm glad my gold medal had made them even happier." Karam was born in Alexandria on 1 September 1979. He is the fourth of seven children -- five boys and two girls. His parents worked as traders, and all his elder brothers were wrestlers before him, as his father was before them. Yet none of them has ever gone as far as he has. "That's why I grew up loving the sport," says Gaber, "because everyone around me was doing it." Gaber started wrestling at the age of eight at the Nasr Youth Centre in Alexandria, a year after his father's death. His father used to train at the same centre, and the young Karam would often go to watch him. From the youth centre, he progressed first to the Nasr Club, and then to the aptly- named Olympic Club, one of the top sports clubs in Alexandria. In 1995, he was spotted by the late Yehia Kazarian, then head coach of the Egyptian national Graeco Roman team. Kazarian found in Gaber everything he had been looking for: his height, his build, his skills, all promised a world and Olympic champion. Gaber joined the national team that same year. For two years, Gaber trained under the supervision of Kazarian. Then in 1997 his Armenian mentor decided the time had come for him to attempt his first international competition. The stage was Finland, and the result a vindication for both the coach and his protégé. Gaber became a real champion, winning the bronze medal at the World Juniors. After this auspicious start, the achievements followed one another. Among the most important: gold in the 2001 Mediterranean Games, silver in the 2002 World Men's Graeco-Roman Championship in Moscow, and silver in the 2003 World Championships in France. And even though he was only a runner-up in the last two world championships; Gaber's classy performance each time got him named man of the tournament. Yet this week's national celebrations almost never happened. Two years ago, Egypt almost lost this mighty Pharaoh to the States. After winning the silver medal at the 2002 World Championship for the first time in the history of Egyptian wrestling, Gaber thought that the State sports administration would appreciate his achievement. But on his return, he was shocked to find that his reward for coming in as runner-up to a world champion was a measly LE25,000. How could that be, at a time when Egypt's football players were being showered with money, despite having made no achievement of any note? Gaber needed that money badly. He wanted to repay his family for helping him financially. He wanted to buy a car so he could get around, an apartment so he could get married just as any normal young man might want to do. Instead, it was his eldest brother, Adel, who had travelled to the US, who had to send him the money for the car. The car didn't last long: Karam soon sold it to buy his family a better apartment than the poor one he had grown up in. Depressed by this lack of recognition, Gaber even began to think of retiring. And it was just then that he received a rich offer from the US: a monthly salary worth thousands of dollars, a car and a flat, in addition to US citizenship, if he would agree to compete for America. How could he turn this down, when he was living in his own country under such humiliating conditions? Even his least demands were still not being answered. Disgusted with his treatment, he packed his bags and left for the States. Suddenly, Egyptian sports officials realised their mistake. Their only hope of an Olympic gold medal had just defected. Before long, Gaber's phone was ringing day and night as he was besieged by pleas to forgive, forget and return to his native land. Four senior officials joined forces to launch a charm offensive. Then Minister of Youth Alieddin Hilal offered him a monthly salary of LE2,500; Petroleum Minister Sameh Fahmi promised to appoint him to a permanent post in his ministry; Governor of Alexandria Major General Abdel-Salah El- Mahgoub told him he had a flat all ready and waiting for him; and Karam Kourdi, president of the Olympic Club, called to say he would set aside a special hall for him to train in, without having to share facilities with his teammates. The Egyptian Wrestling Federation even wrote with details of a special training programme for him to follow while he remained abroad. Who could resist such an onslaught of seduction? By the end of 2002, Karam was back in Egypt, where he belonged. Gaber has a great sense of humour, but he also has a sense of destiny: he believes that Egypt has a right to take its place among the world's sporting giants. "We are a nation that deserves to stand among the leaders," he says. "We are one of the oldest civilisations in the world, and we should work to make sure we keep that place. Our name should always be among the prizewinners at international events, in every field." The newly crowned champion recognises that reaching the peak of the mountain is very hard. "Achieving gold isn't impossible, it isn't even that difficult. But it's not easy, either. It requires hard work, devotion, training, sacrifice and a huge effort. I was away from home for almost six months. I was deprived of my family, for the sake of my sport and my country. In order to become a champion, you have to give up lots of things. You have to sacrifice your childhood, your personal and social life. There is no place for such things. I have been in training camps abroad for most of the past year. My life was wrestling and nothing else. I would train hard for four hours a day, eat and sleep. That's all. It's not easy. My medal wasn't an accident." Beside this devotion and single- mindedness, the 191-cm-tall Gaber attributes his achievement to all those who trained him since his childhood in Alexandria -- people like Ibrahim El-Weshahi, Shaaban Abdel-Wahab and Mahmoud Fathallah. "Each one of them taught me something," he insists. This time, Egypt will not be stinting on the rewards for its champion. Gaber will receive the equivalent of LE1 million from the Ministry of Youth, and many thousands of pounds more from various companies and private businessmen. But now that the initial sting of rejection is past, the champion is more focussed on achievement than on wealth. "I don't care about the money," says Gaber. "It is the medal I care about. It's more precious than all the millions I might collect. It's true that it is great to become a millionaire, but that's not what I am in this for. I come from a good family. We are traders and have our own business. And we've worked to improve our businesses a lot since the old days. I myself work in the field of fashion, more specifically women's clothes, and I have a small factory of my own." Gaber will not even be keeping the medal for himself. He is going to give it to his mother. "She nurtured me, supported and encouraged me since I lost my father at the age of seven," he recalls. His mother, Haja Fatma, is known in the neighbourhood as Um Adel Al-Amricani after the (nick)name of her eldest son Adel who immigrated to the US. She is very proud of Karam, and thinks that he deserves more than he has got so far. "Before, nobody appreciated my son," she says. "As a family, we all had to band together to save money to pay for his training. And it cost a lot of money, because the federation's budget wasn't always enough. I hope that his younger brother Islam, who also practises wrestling, will get some attention now, and will be able to train properly so he can one day be a world and Olympic champion too." Gaber has plans for the future, and not just in wrestling. The first is to get married to his beloved girlfriend, Irina, a 20-year- old Belarusian whom he met four years ago at an international event. "I love her so much," he confides. "She comes from a conservative family, and we will marry soon." Even in family matters, his passion for sport is never far away. "If we have a baby boy, then I'd encourage him to become a wrestler," says Gaber. "I'll train him myself to become an Olympic champion! But if we have a girl, we'll guide her towards gymnastics or swimming. I wouldn't let her take up women's wrestling, even though it has become an Olympic sport. I don't like tough, aggressive girls, and I definitely wouldn't like my daughter to become one of them!" As for his sporting future, the mighty Gaber refuses to admit that he fears any of his opponents on the mat. "I plan ahead of any game, and concentrate in order to win," he explains. "When I lose, it's because I missed a trick, but that is never the result of fear. On the eve of the gold medal match, I was supposed to sleep early, but couldn't. I was so tense. I went to sleep late, woke up early, and just sat there on my own, concocting my plan: how to face him, how to avenge myself. And I did it!" Gaber arrived back in Cairo on Monday with his teammates. But the warmest reception for him was at home in Alexandria, where his friends and fans hosted a huge celebration in one of the city's main squares, Al-Mansheyat. (By a curious coincidence, all Egypt's previous Olympic medallists in wrestling and weightlifting, whose achievements date back to the 1930s and the 1940s, came from Alexandria too. Maybe there is something in the water?) Success may have been hard-won, but it has not turned the new champion's head. Gaber cares about the people so much he has decided to share his prize money with them. "I won't spend the money on a car or an apartment, because I already have those things. Instead I will give some to charity, and then I will buy things for people, celebrate with them. I want Egyptians to be happy too." Nor could the idea of retirement be further from his thoughts. "I'm only 25, which is young for a wrestler. I still have time. Maybe at 30, I'll start to think about what I'll do afterwards. So I guess I'll be defending my medal at Beijing in 2008!" Gaber is also determined to improve the situation for his fellow Egyptian sportsmen. He has asked the Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Youth to allocate larger budgets to specific sports and their champions, so as to increase their allowances and salaries. "We all come from poor or at best middle-class families," Karam explains. "Our parents are not so rich that they can help us once we reach a high level, but still they do their best and provide us with all we need when the officials cannot. Sportsmen should feel that they are appreciated by their country so they can concentrate on their game and give it all they have. If they are neglected, they will turn out as losers, and nobody will benefit." But while conditions still leave much to be desired, Gaber remains an idealist. His victory has only confirmed him in his determination, and in his sense of other people's possibilities. Idolised by Egyptian youth, sought out as a mentor by emerging sportsmen, he closes with the following advice to them: "I advise all children and young people to play sports, and to dedicate themselves to their beloved game; to believe in themselves and their capabilities, to be ambitious, and to train seriously. If they do that, then they will achieve their goals." By Inas Mazhar
