Hicham Mesbahi (born December 4, 1980) is a boxer from

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria ...

who participated in three Olympics. He was born in Casablanca. In 2000, when Sydney hosted the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The ina ...

, he fell in the second round. At the 2004 Summer Olympics where he fought for his native

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in t ...

n country he was defeated in the second round of the flyweight (51 kg) division by

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

's Andrzej Rzany. He qualified for the Athens Games by winning the gold medal at the

1st AIBA African 2004 Olympic Qualifying Tournament The 1st AIBA African 2004 Olympic Boxing Qualifying Tournament was held in Casablanca, Morocco from January 15 to January 22, 2004 in sports, 2004. It was the first chance for amateur boxing, amateur boxers from Africa to qualify for the 2004 Sum ...

Casablanca, Morocco Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

. In the final of the event he defeated Algeria's Mebarek Soltani. For the 2008 Summer Olympics Mesbahi qualified at bantamweight beating among others Issa Samir even though he lost the final of the qualifier to Abdelhalim Ouradi.

References

* 1980 births Sportspeople from Casablanca Flyweight boxers Olympic boxers of Morocco Living people Boxers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Boxers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Boxers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Moroccan male boxers 20th-century Moroccan people 21st-century Moroccan people {{Morocco-boxing-bio-stub