At 51, Egypt's greatest bodybuilder is not necessarily finished yet. Ghada Abdel-Kader got the chance to talk to El-Shahat Mabrouk El-Shahat Mabrouk is the most titled amateur bodybuilder of the world. The Egyptian has a world record that most likely will never be broken -- first place 11 times at the World Amateur Championships, in 1987, 1991, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2010. Just as startling, Mabrouk's last championship came at the age of 50. Now 51, Mabrouk finally decided to retire but he didn't go too far, becoming technical director of teams in the Egyptian Bodybuilding Federation and a lecturer in the Arab Bodybuilding Federation. "I decide to retired when I was still No 1," Mabrouk told Al-Ahram Weekly. "This doesn't mean that I am not going to play again. If I feel I can win first place again, then nothing can stop me." Mabrouk was born in June 1959 in Dasouq, in the Kafr Al-Sheikh governorate. Dasouq is one of Egypt's poorest cities due to lack of resources and agricultural lands. Its inhabitants depend mainly on fishing to earn their living. "At that time getting a job was much more important than going to school," Mabrouk said. And brought up in a family of seven brothers and eight sisters, Mabrouk didn't have a chance to go to school anyway. At six, his first profession was that of a shoemaker. At 13, he had his own shoe making shop. At 16 he became a big movie fan. "My dream was to be a movie star one day." Mabrouk saw the movie Hercules played by bodybuilder and American actor Steve Reeves. Reeves was a bodybuilder-turned- actor long before Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Sylvester Stallone hit the scene. The legendary hero of the mythological tales who had muscles and superpowers beat the enemy every time. "He was a symbol of good against evil," Mabrouk recounted. "I admired the film's idea very much. I thought if I became a world champion in bodybuilding, all the newspapers and magazines would write about me. I would become famous and film directors would ask me to act in their movies." At 17 and without a coach, Mabrouk trained himself by himself in the Dasouq youth centre. Bodybuilders need seven to 10 years of training in order to compete internationally. But only three years after he started practicing Mabrouk represented Egypt, in 1980. "It was the fastest beginning for any bodybuilder in the world." Mabrouk's rise in the sport was meteoric. He won fourth place in the middleweight division at the World Amateur Championships in 1982, 1983, 1984 and 2006. In 1985, he was second. In 1989, he finished 9th in the Grand Prix in Holland and 10th in Finland. So as not to forget his roots, Mabrouk established a bodybuilding centre in Dasouq in 1985. In 1987 he won his first world gold medal at the World Amateur Championships. Fifteen days later, director and scenarist Ibrahim El-Mogi and actor Mahmoud El-Guindi knocked on his door asking him to play a major role in their 1989 film Guide. "I was floored but I remembered the two sentences that I always used to say: that one day the newspapers will write about me, and film directors will want me to act in the cinema." In 2009, Mabrouk took second place as a super-heavyweight in the World Amateur Championships and 7th place in the middleweight division at the Arnold Amateur. He also won fourth place as a heavyweight and first in the masters 5+heavyweight at the 2010 World Amateur Championships. He won a gold medal in the over 80kg masters at the World Juniors and Masters Championships in Antalya, Turkey staged from 10-12 December 2010. It would be Mabrouk's last tournament before announcing his retirement. Even when Mabrouk was winning all those medals, "at that time, bodybuilding was unknown in Egypt." In the late 1990's, however, bodybuilding started gaining popularity in Egypt, becoming a sport mainly of the elite. "God made me for a reason. People loved the character of Mabrouk in the cinema and I started to become their role model." In 2005, Mabrouk bought a small apartment and decided to stay in Cairo after acting in 25 films and two plays. "I didn't achieve my ambition in cinema even though cinema gave me the highest fees. Movies gave me fame as a bodybuilder but not an actor. Only three directors discovered me as an actor: El-Mogi in G uide, Samir Seif in Flame of Revenge and Khairi Bashara in America Shika Bika ". Mabrouk, who has Marwa, Gehan and youngest child Mohamed and who is also a grandfather to Marwa's daughter Jumana, has 33 years experience in training and nutrition. "No one helped me to get such vast experience. I travelled to Germany as a lecturer in clubs and federations. "No bodybuilder before retiring ever received a master's degree in bodybuilding and fitness. In order to be an expert you have to go to university but I did it without studying. And when the president of the International Federation of Bodybuilders (IFBB) Rafael Santonja gave me this diploma at the IFBB World Juniors and Masters Championships in Turkey, he told me 'this is the highest degree we can give you,'" added Mabrouk. "In Dasouq, there is no federation or any administration for the sport. To the Egyptian Bodybuilding Federation and the president of the National Sports Council Hassan Sakr I suggested establishing a bodybuilding academy with branches in all the governorates. Instead of the athletes coming to me in Cairo I will go to them to see what they need and give them some steps to follow," added Mabrouk. For all his fame, though, only once was Mabrouk chosen Egypt's Athlete of the Year, in 1999, in a poll conducted among the top 50 sports journalists in Egypt. He was at the time and will continue to be described by writers as the "Sultan of Muscles".
