Tokyo 2021: Moroccan Ramzi Boukhiam, an Olympian surfer at the Games

Moroccan Ramzi Boukhiam at the 2021 Surf City El Salvador ISA World Surfing Games.

© ISA / Pablo Jimenez

Text by: David Kalfa Follow

7 mins

Ramzi Boukhiam will be one of the two representatives of Africa in surfing, at the Olympic Games (23 July-8 August), with the South African Bianca Buitendag.

For this 27-year-old Moroccan, playing the Tokyo 2021 Olympics is a consecration, he who developed a passion for this discipline on the beaches of Agadir and its region.

Portrait.

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Between Ramzi Boukhiam and Japan, it's a rather special story.

It is in the Land of the Rising Sun that this 27-year-old Moroccan surfer won most of his qualification for the Tokyo Olympics.

It was at the 2019 World Championship, in Miyazaki.

“ 

Before, I had been quite injured and I had not had good results.

I was a little demotivated

, remembers the person concerned.

I told my coach Aziz Bouchgua that I just wanted to surf as I know how to do, let go and be efficient.

So I didn't really have the points in mind and what to do to qualify

 ”.

After having completed the first three laps, Ramzi Boukhiam has however almost secured the place reserved for an African surfer at the Olympics [1]. “ 

We were at the restaurant having dinner. It had been a big day for me, so I was really happy

, he recalls.

But Aziz kept staring at his phone under the table, discreetly. I asked him what he was doing but he replied: '

Nothing, nothing!

'In fact, he was following the results of the South African I was competing with. Because the one who went the furthest during this competition had the place in Tokyo. And when he lost, Aziz said to me: '

It's okay Ramzi, it's done!

' 

”.

The following ?

Lots of calls from his family and from the Moroccan sports world.

But he struggles to realize what he has just achieved.

“ 

I was still competing so I was still focused

,” he explains.

It was really three to four days later that I really realized that it was big, very big, what he had just passed

 ”.

Moroccan Ramzi Boukhiam at the 2021 Surf City El Salvador ISA World Surfing Games.

Ben Reed Photo

A childhood by the ocean

Ramzi Boukhiam then had the opportunity to remember his discovery of surfing, somewhere on the Moroccan coast. “ 

My dad loved fishing so we were at the beach all the time, with my dad, my mom and my big brother. We grew up in Agadir and we went all the time about fifteen kilometers away

, he says.

We were always at the beach, in the water. I started with bodyboarding. My big brother was already surfing. He told me I should try. I hooked directly. And a few months later, I was doing my first competition. It was in 2003 

”.

Ramzi Boukhiam recounts very gently this period in Adadir.

“ 

It was really chill

[relaxed, Editor's note]

, he

slips,

compared to life in large northern cities like Casablanca.

We were spoiled, if only at the level of the climate.

We went to school in shorts.

We could go surfing very often ... It was really a very beautiful childhood 

”.

Even though the young Ramzi loved football then, nothing equals surfing in his heart.

“ 

In the summer, I would go to France.

I played in all the small competitions in the South West of France,

”he explains.

A founding drama

France, the Moroccan will settle to live there in 2007, following a tragedy.

His father has just passed away.

Ramzi Boukhiam's mother, originally from the Netherlands (the country where the athlete was also born), decides to take her two sons to Biarritz, a city that the family already knows well.

“

 The first year, I struggled with winter

, the surfer has fun today.

I was just crying, I was borderline in depression.

I said to my mother: '

We have to go back to Morocco!

'Then I got used to it and made lots of friends.

The Biarritz region is a bit like my second home now.

My mother still lives there

 ”.

He adds: “ 

I did a sport-studies there.

I had my Quicksilver sponsor.

I made a career in the juniors and now in the seniors.

It was a beautiful journey. 

"

Surf the Olympic wave

Ramzi Boukhiam hopes to have another five good years ahead of him, among other things to participate in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, after those in Tokyo.

“ 

To have a Moroccan for the premiere of surfing at the Olympic Games is historic

,” he says.

It will remain engraved in me.

I will be an Olympian forever.

It's gonna be special.

But I really don't want to go to Japan as a tourist and just participate.

I train hard and I know I can do it

 ”.

His ambitions on the beaches of Tsurigasaki, the venue of the competition, are very high.

“ 

I'm aiming for the gold medal!

Afterwards, it will be very complicated because there will be the best in the world.

But anything can happen.

I feel ready, I have good boards.

Everything just needs to connect well on D-Day. My opponents are all beatable

(sic)

.

I really go there to win. 

"

He concludes: “ 

These Games are going to be a crazy experience!

For any athlete, this is the ultimate achievement.

Afterwards, it's going to be a bit special with the Covid.

There will be no public, there will not be all the madness of the Olympics.

But I can't wait to concentrate and put on the lycra.

 "

Moroccan Ramzi Boukhiam at the 2021 Surf City El Salvador ISA World Surfing Games.

© ISA / Pablo Jimenez

[1] South African surfer Jordy Smith had also qualified for the Tokyo 2021 Olympics but had to forfeit due to a knee injury.

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