Tall, shaven, half-Moroccan and rowing
for Great Britain - Mohamed Sbihi
Mohamed Sbihi is an illustration of the current wave of success of rowing in Great Britain. He was discovered
through British rowing’s talent identification “Start” programme. That was two Olympiads ago and Sbihi was
15 years old. He is now heading for the London 2012 Olympic Games sitting in the middle of the men’s eight.
It is not at all surprising that Sbihi was
‘discovered’. He stands 203cm tall making him
the tallest rower on the British team and he
already had a passion for sport, with football
being his main focus.
“I have always been tall,” says Sbihi who, with his
shaven head and 106kg muscular body makes
for an imposing figure. “My parents used to take
me to the doctor’s to see if I had anything wrong
with me. Turns out I have no excuse and was just
above the average for my age.”
Despite height being an advantage in a number of
sports, Sbihi says that rowing is the only sport that
tried to recruit him. Sbihi admits his early rowing
experiences were not that positive. “I hated my
first session,” says Sbihi. “I fell in and felt that
everyone was laughing at me - they were - and
this was a sour experience for me to take on my
first day as a rower. The only problem for me, it
continued to happen for the next four sessions.”
Mohamed Sbihi of
Great Britain.
Memories of his early indoor rowing machine
sessions were similarly challenging. Sbihi
remembers getting beaten by many of the other
boys and girls and his first 2km test taking well
over eight minutes. “I remember also that the
pain was unlike anything I had experienced in any
other sport. That is when I realised you have to
have something wrong mentally to love the sport
and I think this suited me well.”
Mohamed Sbihi ( 5 seat) and Greg Searle
( 6 seat) in Great Brtiain men’s eight at
the 2011 World Championships in Bled
Bled, Slovenia.
Sibhi’s talent soon began to shine and later in his
first season of rowing he won a gold medal at the
British Indoor Rowing Championships for his age
group. He then worked his way onto the junior
national team, but admits it wasn’t an easy path.
Disappointed at being unable to make the junior
national team as a 17-year-old, Sbihi realised >
