Mohamed Ihab

Mohamed Ihab Youssef Ahmed Mahmoud (born 21 November 1989) is an Egyptian weightlifter, and World Champion competing in the 77 kg category until 2018 and 81 kg starting in 2018 after the International Weightlifting Federation reorganized the categories.

Ihab was born in Faiyum, Egypt a city located 100 kilometers from Cairo. He was introduced to weightlifting by his father. Ihab started training with a coach at the age of 8 after his brother took him to a weightlifting gym. He went on to join the Egyptian national team at the age of 15 at a body weight of 56 kg. Ihab's biggest influence in weightlifting was his father, after his passing Mohamed decided to dedicate his life to the sport.

Olympics

At the 2016 Summer Olympics he competed in the men's 77 kg weight class, getting third place for both the snatch and clean & jerk, giving him an overall bronze medal.

World Championships

In 2014 he won the silver medal in the Total for the 69 kg weight-class in the 2014 World Weightlifting Championships, lifting 334 kg. He also won a bronze medal in the Snatch (152 kg) and silver in the Clean & Jerk (182 kg).

In the following year he competed in the 77 kg weight-class at the 2015 World Weightlifting Championships in Houston, winning a bronze medal in the total initially. The original silver medalist Kim Kwang-song failed a drug test and his lifts were disqualified, giving Ihab the silver medal to go along with a silver medal in the clean & jerk.

In 2017 he competed at the 2017 World Weightlifting Championships in the 77 kg category. He became World Champion, winning gold medals in all lifts, giving Egypt its first overall gold medal at the World Weightlifting Championships since Said Khalifa Gouda and Ibrahim Shams won gold medals in 1951.

In 2018 the International Weightlifting Federation reorganized the categories and Ihab competed in the newly created 81 kg category. In the snatch portion of the competition he lifted a new world record of 173 kg, which exceeded the world record set by Lü Xiaojun minutes earlier, this secured him the gold medal in the snatch. With his first two attempts of 196 kg and 200 kg in the clean & jerk portion he set two new world records of 369 kg and 373 kg in the total. This was not enough to win gold as Lü Xiaojun lifted 202 kg, giving him a 1 kg lead over Ihab as he won the silver medal.