17-year-old Palestinian karate athlete Maryam Bsharat becomes a two-time world champion

Second gold in a row

17-year-old karate athlete Maryam Bsharat won her second gold medal at the World Championship among athletes under 21 in October, competing for the Palestinian national team at a tournament in Poland. “When the referee raised my hand, showing that I was now a two-time world champion, it was a very powerful feeling. Making history once is one thing, but making it twice is quite another,” Deutsche Welle quotes her as saying. Deutsche Welle According to the outlet, the athlete, who competes in the under 66 kg category, holds first place in the world ranking of the World Karate Federation (WKF).

From Nablus via Hamburg

Bsharat grew up in Nablus in the occupied West Bank, where, in her words, “seeing people killed next to me and homes bombed was everyday life.” As a child she did not like karate and took it up because sport was a family affair: her father ran a dojo, and her mother trained as well. Today her father acts as her manager and her uncle as her coach. Last year her mother, brothers and sisters moved to Hamburg together with Maryam, while her father stayed in Palestine because of his business but travels to his daughter’s competitions. Integration in Germany, the athlete notes, was made easier by her command of the language, which her German mother taught her.

Training difficulties and the pressure of responsibility

Bsharat spoke about the specific obstacles facing athletes from the Palestinian territories: due to movement restrictions she could not travel between cities for joint training sessions and had to go to Jordan or Egypt instead, while financial support did not match the level of an elite athlete. According to her, there are very few internationally successful athletes in Palestine, so the pressure of the whole country, her family and her coaches rests on her: “I represent them, I raise their flag. Sometimes I even forget to fight for myself and to think about myself.” At the same time, she is grateful to Germany for the opportunities that opened up to her, but recalls leaving home with mixed feelings.

Olympic prospects in question

Palestine is recognized by the International Olympic Committee, and Bsharat could aspire to compete at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles; however, karate was dropped from the program of the 2024 Games and will not be included in the 2028 program. The sport has also been excluded from the program of the recent Youth Games in Senegal. In 2024 the WKF stated that it hoped the situation would be corrected by the 2032 Games in Brisbane. If karate returns, Bsharat, by DW’s assessment, will be close to her peak form. The athlete herself has set the goal of becoming a world champion among adults, and calls an Olympic medal and competing under her country’s flag her dream.