Rebeka Salsabil Ibrahim (born Rebeka Koha; 19 May 1998) is a Latvian-born Qatari

weightlifter Olympic weightlifting, or Olympic-style weightlifting (officially named Weightlifting), is a sport in which athletes compete in lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead, with each athlete trying to successfully lift ...

, two time Junior World Champion and two time European Champion competing in the 58 kg division until 2018 and 59 kg starting in 2018 after the

International Weightlifting Federation The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), headquartered in Lausanne, is the international governing body for the sport of Olympic weightlifting. The IWF was founded in 1905, and has 192 Member Federations. The IWF President is Mohammed H ...

reorganized the categories. She was coached by Eduards Andruškevičs, who has also been coaching Olympic medalist

Viktors Ščerbatihs Viktors Ščerbatihs (born 6 October 1974 in Dobele) is a former Latvian weightlifter and politician and a three-time Olympian for his native country. He is 181 cm tall. In the 2004 Summer Olympics, he won the silver medal in the over 105&n ...

and Artūrs Plēsnieks. In 2023, Rebeka returned to weightlifting representing Qatar and winning Qatar Cup and West Asian Championships.

Career

She currently has junior world records in the clean & jerk and total in the 59 kg division.

Olympics

In 2016, she competed at 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 inau ...

in the 53 kg division placing fourth overall. She was named Latvian Rising Star of the Year in 2016 after her performance at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

World Championships

In 2017, she competed at the

World Weightlifting Championships The World Weightlifting Championships is an event organised by International Weightlifting Federation (IWF). The first competition, held in March 1891, was won by Edward Lawrence Levy of England. Athletes compete in a total of 20 weight categori ...

winning the bronze medal in the snatch and total. In 2018, the IWF restructured the weight classes, and Koha competed in the newly created 59 kg division. She followed up her bronze medal performance in 2017 with stronger performance at the

2018 World Weightlifting Championships The 2018 World Weightlifting Championships were held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan from 1 to 10 November 2018. The logo of IWF World Championships 2018 has consisted of abstract illustration of weightlifting athlete designed by Ashgabat based design fi ...

winning another bronze medal in the snatch and total and setting junior world records in the snatch, clean & jerk, and total.

European Championships

In 2016, she competed at the

European Weightlifting Championships European Weightlifting Championships is an annual event organised by the European Weightlifting Federation (EWF). It has been held since 1896. A separate event for women was held from 1988 to 1997, after which both championships have been held ...

winning a bronze medal in the total in the 53 kg category. The following year she competed at the

2017 European Weightlifting Championships The 2017 European Weightlifting Championships were held in Split, Croatia, Split, Croatia from 2 April to 8 April 2017. Medal overview Men Women Men's results Men's 56 kg Men's 62 kg Men's 69 kg Men's 77 kg Men's 85 kg Men's 94 kg ...

winning a gold medal in the snatch, and silver medals in the clean & jerk and total in the 58 kg category. At the

2018 European Weightlifting Championships The 2018 European Weightlifting Championships was held at the Complexul Olimpic Izvorani in Bucharest, Romania from 26 March to 1 April 2018. Some countries were banned from competing at the championships due to their history of doping at pre ...

, Koha swept gold in all lifts (snatch, clean & jerk, and the total) and became European Champion in the 58 kg division.

Other Competitions

She competed at the 2017 Junior World Weightlifting Championships, winning silver medals in the snatch and clean & jerk, but a gold medal in the total, becoming Junior World Champion in the 58 kg division. In 2018, coming off her Junior World Championships gold medal, she defended her title as the Junior World Champion by winning gold medals in all lifts at the

2018 Junior World Weightlifting Championships The 2018 Junior World Weightlifting Championships were held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, itali ...

Major results

Private life

In spring of 2020 Koha became engaged with the Qatari discus thrower Moaaz Mohamed Ibrahim and on July 26 announced via her

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

account she had converted to

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

. On August 5 she announced her retirement from sport.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Koha, Rebeka 1998 births Living people Latvian female weightlifters Qatari weightlifters Weightlifters at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics People from Ventspils Olympic weightlifters for Latvia Weightlifters at the 2016 Summer Olympics World Weightlifting Championships medalists European Weightlifting Championships medalists Latvian Muslims Converts to Islam