Exclusive: How Ziad Elsissy's husband-and-wife LA 2028 dream brought him back from brink of fencing retirement
The two-time Olympic fencer tells Olympics.com in an exclusive interview how he came back stronger from losing the Paris 2024 bronze medal bout, and how he applies his engineering background to the sport.
"It wasn't a tough moment of my career. I think it was one of the toughest moments of my life."
Ziad Elsissy has a solemn look on his face when he reflects on Paris 2024, where the Egyptian participated at his second Olympic Games edition.
His first was a poignant debut at Tokyo 2020 in 2021, the chance to fulfill his late father's vision for his son. Elsissy returned at Paris as the number one-ranked sabre fencer, a World Championship medalist, and aiming for a maiden Olympic podium.
The 30-year-old made it all the way to the bronze medal bout at the Grand Palais, one win away from his goal, but was beaten by Italy's Luigi Samele.
Elsissy tells Olympics.com, "I have two very tough moments of my life that I won't forget. First one is losing my dad, and the second one is losing at that Olympics, at Paris, losing that medal. Since I was a kid, my dream was to make it to the Olympic Games and get an Olympic medal.
"That wasn't only my dream, it was me and my dad's. After he passed away, I decided that I'm going to pursue our dream, get to the Olympics and win that medal for me and for him."
What Elsissy viewed as a soul-crushing defeat led to a resurgence to chase his ultimate goals, inspired by his wife, Egyptian squash player Nouran Gohar.
Ziad Elsissy on bouncing back from Paris heartbreak: 'It taught me a big lesson'
A tidal wave of emotions hit at the end of the bronze medal match, once Samele secured the match point. Both men fell to the floor, overwhelmed with contrasting sentiments of pain and glory, before the Italian medalist embraced Elsissy and encouraged the crowd to support the crestfallen Egyptian.
It took time to recover mentally from that moment, one which the Alexandria native looks back on almost a year later, far more philosophically. That doesn't mean that the road back to the fencing piste came without hurdles.
"At the end of the day, sports, you can win, or you can lose and it happens anytime," Elsissy explains. "It didn't end up the way I want, but it taught me a big lesson in life. Just standing up after this hard moment of my life and being able to walk again.
"I took like eight months off. I didn't practice, I didn't open my fencing bag. I put my fencing bag in my guestroom and I didn't open the door. I didn't want to see the bag. I needed a little break because for the Olympics, it's not only a month or two, three months or a year training. It's three to four years' preparation for a big moment."
One of the key aspects of fencing for Elsissy is the mental game, in a sport he views as "physical chess" and a "mind game with your opponent". Paris exemplified that, leaving the Egyptian in a place where he needed to escape the intense microcosm.
He similarly detached from the sport when his father, former Egyptian basketball international Aly Elsissy, passed away in 2014. He went quiet and stepped back from the sport for two weeks.
Elsissy continued, "I was debating a lot, 'Should I come back and fence again? Am I going to do this again? Am I ready to do it?' I didn't want to see it, but then I decided, 'You know what? I'm opening this again and I'm pursuing my dream and I'll be back again'. I think something clicked, and I am thankful.
"I give a lot of credit to my wife, my family and all the people that believed in me. After the Olympics, they kept calling me and trying to get me back. I think they have a lot to do with me being back."
How engineer Elsissy applies his studies and teachings to the strip
Athletes are often known as students of the game, and Elsissy is a prime example of that from his time as a mechanical engineering student. The 30-year-old studied at Wayne State University in Michigan, USA, where he enjoyed a successful collegiate fencing career.
There are also far more similarities between his sport and his studies than appear to the naked eye, with a multitude of technical aspects helping the Egyptian become a better athlete.
"A big part of engineering is problem solving," Elsissy explains. "It gives me the same thing that I want to do on the strip and in life in general. I want to solve the problem. I want to make sure that I'm going to make the best of the situation I'm in right now. I think a big part of engineering that did help is the problem-solving part.
"I think fencing is a very unique sport. I like to play the mental game. As soon as you put on that mask and try to play that mental game with your opponent, try to think what his next move will be and how you're going to counter that move, it's just an amazing feeling."
A former basketball player, along with his father and brother, Elsissy used his skills from the court to help him once he pursued fencing. In fact, he practiced many sports before settling on a career with a weapon in hand – his mother signed him up for gymnastics, swimming, and even squash, before he realized that fencing was the path for him.
"I was always trying to find an excuse to get out to get back to basketball," he admits. "When I started fencing, I saw how much of an impact it [had] to help me perform better in basketball. Getting me faster, higher jumps, and everything. I started falling in love with the sport and that's how I continued in fencing."
Having learned to adapt from one discipline to another, the sabre fencer now coaches young athletes in New York.
He says, "I love when my students, before I leave for a tournament, say, 'Coach Ziad, good luck. You're going to get this. We're going to be rooting for you.' So it's not only me watching them in tournaments. They watch me, too.
"Every time I feel a little down, I remember I want to show them that you're still fighting, that you can always make it work, so it just gives me a boost to fight more."
The feeling is mutual – many of the Egyptian's prodigies flew out to Paris to support their teacher on the Olympic stage.
Egypt's Ziad Elsissy and Nouran Gohar aim for LA28 fairytale
Elsissy's comeback from his fencing break post-Paris has been so far successful. He finished third on his FIE World Cup return in June, reaching the podium for the second consecutive year in Padua, Italy.
The Alexandrian followed that up with a continental gold at the African Championships Lagos 2025, taking the men's team sabre title along with fellow Egypt Olympians Adham Moataz and Mohamed Amer.
Aiming for a third Olympic Games at LA 2028, Elsissy wants to qualify alongside his wife, Gohar. She has extra motivation as a squash star back home, with the racket sport one of five new events being added to the LA28 programme.
"It's something our family dreams of," says Elsissy, "and I think if we were able to achieve that, we [would] be very happy. Both of us were able to medal at almost every single tournament on tour, either nationally, regionally, or at world level. I think the only one that we were missing is the Olympic medal.
"We don't see each other that much, but we try to. That's why we have a very organized calendar on the fridge telling us the dates we're back, if we can find a couple days to spend together. We try to plan it very precisely so we can spend as much time as possible together."
Though they come from different sports, Elsissy enjoys playing squash in the off-season. "The movement of squash is very similar to the movement of our offensive footwork," he explains, "during off times I like do it for fun, it's a very enjoyable sport."
The support from Gohar has been crucial in bringing the two-time Olympic fencer back to the strip, where he needed to be reminded of his capabilities and the ensuing dream of Olympic glory.
Elsissy will be 33 by the time LA28 comes round, and with Egyptian fencing going from strength to strength, the motivation to bring home a medal in the sabre event will only grow as the days count down to the next Olympic Games.
"I hope one day they can add an extra medal for us at the Olympics, or on the other hand, I will be well prepared," Elsissy concludes, "We never fence for a bronze medal, only at the Olympic Games. So I was never in that situation. Hopefully I'm not gonna be in that situation again - I'll make it to the gold right away - but if that happened, I'll be well-prepared for it."
