Show Notes

• Rivalry with Nour El Sherbini
• Mental toughness
• Ups and downs of the 2023-24 season
• The Terminator
• The lifestyle and regimen of a professional athlete
• Why it’s important to have a coach
• Performing at the highest level of a profession
• State of squash in Egypt and the U.S.
• 2028 Summer Olympics
• A role model for young girls

Connect With Nouran Gohar

✩ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nourangohar
✩ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nourangoharofficial

Summary

Nouran Gohar is the reigning world female squash champion, and was recently named PSA Female Player of the Year for the third season in a row! She was also honored as one of Forbes Middle East’s 30 Under 30 in 2022. Nouran shares what it takes to become World #1, and why she wants to inspire and be a role model for others.

Full Transcript

Brian
Welcome to another episode of LifeExcellence with Brian Bartes. Join me as I talk with amazing athletes, entrepreneurs, authors, entertainers, and others who have achieved excellence in their chosen field so you can learn their tools, techniques and strategies for improving performance and achieving greater success. Nouran Gohar is the reigning world female squash champion and was recently named PSA Female Player of the Year for the third year in a row. Known as The Terminator on the court, Nouran has consistently proven herself as a dominant force in the sport, reaching the pinnacle of success with multiple titles and accolades both on and off the court, including being honored as one of Forbes Middle East’s 30 under 30 in 2022. Born in Cairo, Egypt, she discovered her passion for squash at a young age and quickly rose through the ranks with her exceptional talent, fierce determination, and unparalleled work ethic. Nouran’s journey is a testament to the power of perseverance, mental toughness and the relentless pursuit of greatness. It’s an honor to have her on the show. She joins us today from Cairo, Egypt. Welcome Nouran, thanks for joining us on LifeExcellence.

Nouran
Oh, thank you for having me. It’s such a big honor for me to be a part of the show. Thank you for inviting me over.

Brian
It’s my pleasure and my honor; it’s going to be a great conversation and I’m looking forward to it. Nouran, you’ve just ended a season that is arguably your best ever, and was kept by winning your last five tournaments, including the World Championships, the British Open and the World Tour finals. Not only did you win those last three major tournaments, but each included a victory in the finals over the number one ranked player in the world, Nour El Sherbini. In Egypt, at the World Championships, you claimed your first world title after losing to Sherbini in the previous three World Champ finals. What did it mean to you to not only win a title that eluded you the the World Championship, but to also do so in your home country and against someone who has been so tough to beat in that term?

Nouran
Yeah, you just summarized everything right now. I think it wasn’t only about winning the World Championship, it was about winning it in Egypt and beating Sherbini in the final after losing three times previously in the World Championship. I mean, me and Sherbini have always had very tough matches in different finals. Sometimes it goes my way, sometimes it goes her way but the World Championship, it was always her way. I remember talking to my mental coach before the World Championship, and we were trying to prepare for that. One thing that made a huge difference is that I told him, I don’t feel like I’m going into a world championship and feeling like I’m playing another big major and to just not think about the pressure and just think about it as another tournament. So I think that way made it very relaxing for me, obviously, not very likely, it’s still a very big tournament, and it’s very hard to get your nerves together. But yeah, I just went into the tournament, not putting the pressure of losing three World Championships before that. And in the final, and obviously, in the past, it was very tough to lose these matches. But then he told me, I think you wouldn’t be happy just winning a world championship, you will be happy winning it in Egypt, against the one that made you lose the previous three encounters. It was true, like I think the whole location made it extra special.

Brian
And that’s really the thing that stood out for me about the match when I look back on it. Thinking about it, even going into that match, what you had to overcome mentally in order to beat Nour, and it’s interesting, your explanation of how you approached it. Obviously, you were successful in doing that. What was that like going through the match? You won the first game so that must have given you extreme confidence. And then you lost the second game. What were you thinking about through the beginning of the match and the second game and then going into the third and fourth games, which you won, obviously.

Nouran
We did play in the final of El Gouna, which was two weeks before that one, it was another platinum event. I did actually win the first game. I was very close to again in the second game and then I lost the second game and I won the third and the fourth. So it was kind of a similar story, but obviously, every match is very different. But in my mind I was trying – when I lost the second game in the World Championship – not to panic and [to] remind myself, okay, I just did it, like I was the same player, I’m playing against the same player, it doesn’t matter if it’s a world championship, it’s another platinum event; I was able to come back in the third and the fourth. Obviously, I was very grateful to have my coach, Haitham Effat, with me in my corner after the second game. He came to me and he’s like, just forget about this, even if you were to level up, you should win this coming third game. I think it’s always about thinking about the next step, not two steps after the next step, no, just the next step. And when I won the third game it gave me confidence to win the fourth, I think. But if I would have thought about the whole match, it would have been very tough on me mentally to think about it. From the beginning, I didn’t think about winning or losing this much, I was thinking more about executing my game plan, that I thought it was very solid and that I was very confident in it. Because if you don’t perform well, you’re never going to win. But if you’re thinking about winning, and you’re not performing, it’s never going to happen. It’s just added pressure, unnecessary added pressure, I just didn’t want to have this on my shoulder.

Brian
How much of the game is mental versus physical? Obviously, you have…we’re going to get into the professional squash and what it takes to play at that level, but how much of it is mental versus the skill set? You obviously have both.

Nouran
It’s huge. I think it’s huge, especially when you’re talking about number one and two playing for titles; obviously, the mental aspect of the first from certain ranked players to others, it’s very different when you’re [in the] top 50 and you want to climb in the ranking. It’s a different mental struggle. But the mental struggle between being the top two in the game and trying to clinch the titles, and you play every two weeks, it’s a very tough rivalry to have; you have to be mentally very prepared. Then you always know that if you win this match, the next one, they are going to come at you and it’s very fine margins, I think, like in the top three especially right now. It’s very small and fine margins and the mental aspects of it definitely plays a huge role. I think we are all very good at squash technically, tactically. Who, on that day, that has the mind all together is going to win at the end, I think.

Brian
Obviously, that day you were able to come out on top. Beyond that though, Nouran, the way you finished the year was so impressive to me because you would face and defeat Sherbini not only in the World Championship, but also the British Open in London, and then the World Tour finals in Seattle. You beat her all three matches, which is incredible, and has to make you feel very good about how you finished the season. In general, as you reflect back on the 2023-24 season, how would you assess your performance?

Nouran
The season itself, I would say I had my highest in my career, but I had my lowest as well with the injury. I would say it was an unexpected season in all aspects. I didn’t expect myself to be injured, I got injured when I was at the very peak, I was number one, I was playing very well and then I had to face disappointment with the injury and a big struggle and a lot of doubts. Then the second half, which was spectacular, extraordinary, like something that I never expected, again, unexpected. I didn’t expect myself, first of all, to perform that way and to get these results knowing how the season started I truly believed in myself, but I’m very honest with myself as well. Seeing how things were going at the beginning I was like, okay, if I can just end the season well enough I’ll be very grateful. So to be honest, I never expected it to be one of the best seasons of my life.

Brian
You mentioned your injury, you were at the pinnacle of the sport at that time, you were ranked world number one, and then you got injured. And so going through the season, you ended up the way it did, and you had some impressive victories and played very, very well at the end of the season. Tell us, if you could, about overcoming adversity because I think there’s a big lesson in that. That had to have been an incredible letdown emotionally, psychologically, being at the top of the game and then getting injured. How did you overcome that?

Nouran
I think for any athlete, in any sport, the worst thing that can happen is being injured. I always say your body is your asset, so if your body’s not functioning well then you can’t perform, you can’t do anything, like your job is gone in a way. That’s why we take very good care of our body. We have a big team of physiotherapists, doctors, fitness trainers; this is a very important part. So I had this injury from last season, at the very end of last season, and then I tried to treat it in a normal way with physiotherapy, and boy, it was just getting worse. Then I started the season feeling a lot of pain. I was in pain for three or four months and trying to push through the pain. It’s very hard because it makes you very edgy and not comfortable. You’re always in pain even when I was walking awkward…not even awkward; as a normal human being, I couldn’t just walk around the city or the town, I couldn’t do stuff like that so it made me feel very edgy and nervous. In the end, I did injure myself drastically and I had a tear of nine millimeters in my plantar fascia, which is technically the whole plantar fascia, and I was still competing that way. The doctors were like, you have to be in a boot right now for six to eight weeks. That happened just before the US Open, which is one of my favorite tournaments. I won it three times previously, I always feel very comfortable playing there. It’s a very prestigious tournament to win. And just having the news of being out was a shock in itself because I didn’t expect it to be that bad. I was just expecting like, okay, it’s just a nasty injury and it’s just going to go away. They were like, no, you have to just talk; it was mixed emotions. At the beginning, I had three tough seasons back to back so I was kind of burnt out; I reached 24 finals, out of 21 events. So if you do the math and the amount of matches I played, it’s a lot, not only physically, but on my mental health as well, it was very, very demanding and very tough. So in a way, this injury made me have a break. I wouldn’t have taken it if it wasn’t because of the injury. And I remember that time, actually I watched every single match that was playing on the PSA tour, whether man or woman; I became like a very big fan of squash. Obviously, I’m always a very big fan of squash, despite being a professional squash player, but I was like a geek watching every single thing that was being played, even small tournaments, not only platinum, but like silver. My husband was like, that’s enough. Squash was on our screen like 24/7. I think…I guess I just missed it. This injury made me see things from a very different perspective. Then I was supposed to be back so I flew to Austria, to the Red Bull rehab center and they connected me to one of the best foot specialists there. What I had was…it doesn’t happen often, it wasn’t only about the tear, I had also a very bad contusion in my heel so it’s very sensitive. Squash, you can’t play without impact for sure, it’s all about impact. Just by touching the heel, I would scream, it was very painful. I had to treat it; I took four PRP injections, which was very painful. I was by myself, completely by myself, so it was very depressing as well. Being by myself on my birthday and the US Open being played, I’m in this place where it’s completely isolated. It’s a very nice center, but it’s completely isolated. I have nothing around me. I stay there for almost four weeks and everyday…when you’re by yourself, you’re always talking to yourself and in a very negative way. I’m like, am I going to go through this? Am I going to be able to play again even, or not even win. I’m just thinking about playing, just playing and competing. As I said, I was really struggling just walking. All I wanted is just to be pain free in general. And then I was supposed to come back for Hong Kong end of December and my progress wasn’t that great. They were like you have a very bad chance to go back because if you go back and you re-injure yourself, that’s going to be even worse. Then I have to wait, wait, which I hate. Then I started again in Florida in the beginning of January. I lost in the semis but I knew I was on the right track. I think I really surprised myself in terms of performance. But again, I never thought that will be the year that I’m going to win the World Championship. I never thought about it that way. If anyone would have come to me in October – actually someone came to me in October and told me you’re going to win the World Championship, which is my physiotherapist [inaudible] and [inaudible] – they both told me…they were like, you know what, you’re going to win the World Championship this year and I started laughing. I was like, okay, come on. I was very well prepared, I was very ready and I didn’t win, I’m going to win it in that year when I’m not ready, in the top actually.

Brian
It’s funny how that works but you might be right, maybe the break actually did you some good. I mean the pause in playing, it certainly taught you a little bit about patience. I think it’s funny that you were binge watching squash. When you binge watched squash were you doing that for entertainment or is there technical analysis? Are there things that you can learn watching squash?

Nouran
I think unconsciously there is a technical thing that I try to learn from every single player even if they’re below me in the ranking. I think you can learn from every single player, like they have something special if they’re on top; playing in the top 20 or top 30. There is something that they know how to do. Learning from every player I think just does you good and it helps you be a complete player actually. So I think firstly, it was more for entertainment but in the back [of my] mind I was analyzing and saying oh, actually they played this shot in a good way. So everything is in the back of mind and everything is like you remember it when you need it. So it’s in the unconscious, you do analyze and you do learn. But it wasn’t like I’m having my pen and paper and writing down tactics or technical stuff, no, it was more about okay, I’m having my lunch and watching a squash match and then unconsciously I was doing the analysis in my mind, I think.

Brian
Certainly better for your squash game than binge watching a television series or something like that. Like you said, it goes into your subconscious and that can only be helpful. Nouran, you’re known in the squash community as The Terminator because you hit the ball so hard. What do people who know you – other players, other coaches, your coaches, announcers at tournaments – say about you and your style of play?

Nouran
I grew up learning from squash coach and his name was Mohamed Medhat. So he used to hit the ball very, very hard, like, extremely hard and that was my first coach, actually. As for men, obviously they’re stronger than us so they hit the ball harder. But you’ll find people like John White, who would hit the ball super hard. But for women, I think it wasn’t very usual to find the girl hitting the ball that hard. So actually, they knew that this will give me a huge advantage growing up. It’s not only about hitting the ball hard, I think, it’s about pace as well, and taking the ball early. So having the two aspects; you’re actually taking time away from your opponent, but you’re actually hitting it hard so that they don’t have time to regroup as well. So it’s like both; not giving time for the opponent and the ball coming at them very fast, it is actually pressure and that’s how I think I execute pressure on my opponents. I think they have always thought – like any coach I worked with throughout my junior career and even my senior career – they thought that’s a big advantage that I have. But you can only do this for sure, like in order to win big marches and big titles, you cannot only be playing a hitting game, but obviously, it helps giving you more chances to attack more. It’s like a setup, it sets you up to hit the next shot as a winner. But if you’re just hitting the ball hard, that’s not going to be good for you. I think as well, what made a huge difference for me was the quality of the shot, thinking about the quality of the shot, not just hitting the ball hard. So obviously, I’m known for hitting the ball hard, which is something that I love, because it makes me a bit unique on tour. But I think as well, they like the fact that my basic game has quality and that’s the hard part, to find the hitting but also the quality, I think.

Brian
So you have a combination of hitting hard but also finesse when you need finesse.

Nouran
I think growing up as well, my parents – especially my mom – always wanted me to have a good technique. She didn’t just want me to win, she would be very strict in my technique and my solo sessions, and I would solo for maybe two, three hours a day. So it made me feel very familiar to the court and familiar to the way I’m hitting the wall. She would always tell me you have to have your wrist up, you have to have your racket up, so that’s why I have a very tight racket preparation. [Laughter.] That definitely helped me, it’s not just about hitting the ball. It’s about hitting it with good target and good technique, I think.

Brian
Do you like being called The Terminator?

Nouran
I do like it. I do like it because…actually a fun fact. I think me and Sherbini, we were the first two female players to be given a nickname during the middle of the British Open in 2016. Only men had nicknames, and we females, they didn’t have nicknames [for us] and then they came up with the names during the British Open final.

Brian
What is Nour’s nickname?

Nouran
I think Warrior Princess, yeah, I think. I like [mine] because it’s the complete opposite of my personality of, as you can see, I always like to laugh and smile, and I’m not that intense at all off court. So if it intimidates my opponents, I’m okay with it. As long as I’m playing with the rules and everything, but of course, I’m the complete opposite person. Even my friends, they always laugh about that, they’re like, if they knew you off court, they wouldn’t even get one percent intimidated from what you’re doing off court.

Brian
Oh that’s funny. Nouran, I’m a student of success and achievement and I have tremendous respect for professional athletes in all sports. Tell us about your lifestyle and regimen as a squash professional. What’s required of you to play at such a high level? You mentioned earlier the difference between being in the top 50 and being in the top two or three. What does it take to be a professional and to compete at the level that you do in squash?

Nouran
I think it takes everything; squash becomes your life. It’s all about squash, like everything is around squash. When I prepared for my wedding day it was depending on my squash schedule. It’s never something before squash, no, it’s always squash that comes first and then anything else comes around. Even when I rest, it’s for squash to be fresher. So I think that’s the most important thing to know before going into any sport in general. I think if you want to play at a very high level, it’s very common because I do live with another professional athlete, I do live with a fencer, actually. We both understand that sport – our sport – comes first and then anything else is going to come after that. So by this, I mean, like I can’t go to all our things, I can’t have dinner outside everyday because I need to sleep early because I need to be fresh for my training tomorrow. I do wake up very early, go for my session. I usually wake up like 6 am because I have my first session that starts at 7am ends at nine which is a gym session. And then I start my technical session after that with my squash coach at nine, finish it at 11 then go back home, cook a very…during my weekend…sometimes I might not spend the whole weekend having fun because I’m doing my meal preps. Because when I go back from training, I need to have my meal prepared so that I get some time to nap. Then after a nap, I wake up, I go again for another training session, which is more like practice matches, which is another two hours. After I’m done with that I go to my physiotherapist to recover and I go back home. It’s like 8-9 at night, and then I just need to eat and sleep. And this is like if I’m staying at home, if I’m not, I’m traveling for tournaments; it’s all about the matches. I do travel from 12-14 times a year, ten days each tournament. So if you do the math, it’s 140 days, so half of the year. So when you compare this to a normal person working from nine to five, it’s a very different lifestyle. It’s very exciting in a way because you do meet people from everywhere in the world, you do what you love because at the end of the day, squash is my passion. I’m doing what I love. But you do a lot of sacrifice as well. For example, I didn’t attend my brother’s graduation, which was last month because I was playing at the World Tour finals. I didn’t attend my own graduation because I was playing in San Francisco at that time because I chose to. So you do a lot of sacrifices. But if you’re willing to do it, you just don’t feel that these are sacrifices, I think. And it’s not only about you, it’s also about the people around you. My parents and my husband and my brothers are my friends, they understand that I’m not available, 90% that I’m not going to be available. Like it’s only ten percent that I might be available. Sometimes, if things are going great you’re like, oh my god, that’s the best thing in my life. If they’re not going great, you can start feeling a bit sad. You’re like, is that really worth it, all of these sacrifices? I think people don’t see how much we give up for being where we are. I see it in different sports, even in soccer, especially, the athletes will get hundreds of criticism for his performance over what he’s doing, or they’re talking about his private life and they have no clue what happened behind the scenes. They have no clue what’s going on. I think it’s a very hard lifestyle to have, but it’s a very rewarding one as well, I think.

Brian
I think a lot of people want to be really good at things, their chosen profession, but they’re far less likely to do what it takes to be really good at that. I’m sure you find that in squash, I think you find that everywhere. You’re right, part of it is really…we don’t have appreciation for what goes into that. We see you playing in a tournament, you play four matches, say, and you win the tournament but what we didn’t see was what it took back at home getting up at six and going to bed at nine in doing that training regimen. By the way, at home, is that five days a week, six days a week? Do you rest on the seventh day?

Nouran
Yes, I do but sometimes I decide I have to do stuff around squash; I have to recover, go do a massage, which is a nice thing, I’m not saying it’s…but still I have to sleep a lot on that day so that I do recover as well. I do need to do my meal preps for the rest of the week. But I love this lifestyle, this is why I chose [it] and it’s suiting me right now and I’m loving it. Actually when I got injured, I appreciated it even more. When I got injured, I was like, okay, let me now have fun. I didn’t have to [inaudible] let me now see my friends, go out. It took me only two days to be like, okay, that’s not what I want, I want to go back to the hard lifestyle that I had. Even when I was in college or high school, I started construction engineering and I remember my friends, they were like, how do you do both? But again, I think you have to be willing to give up on stuff. If you know that this is more important – like having a good degree and being a professional athlete – for me, I’d give up on my social life during that time. I didn’t have a social life, I was just doing. It was either squash or studying.

Brian
Nouran, I know you give a lot of credit for your success to your team. You’ve talked about some of the people on your team and in particular, your coaches. Share with us why you believe it’s so important to have a coach and what qualities do you think are essential in a coach?

Nouran
I always say it, I think one of the biggest bonds in any relationship, I think it’s between the athlete and the coach. It’s a very special bond; no one would understand this, except the ones that had it. I was very lucky to have these special bonds with a lot of great coaches. I’m not going to throw out names because I’m going to forget names for sure. But I had this special relationship with Rod, Rodney Martin, which he was one of the legends of the game. I felt very lucky to be able to learn from him that close. Right now I’m working with Haitham, which his family – for us, for me and my husband – we’re very good friends. But at the same time, there’s this relationship between the athlete and the coach. It’s very special and it’s very different. I think it differs from from one age to the other. I remember when I was 13 or 15, my coach, if he would have told me just throw yourself out of this window, I will do it without even thinking because he’s super important to me. I would listen to what he’s saying, as if he’s my parent. But I think when you grow up more, as you become more mature, you become more friends with your coaches. Then you start having more in depth conversation, deep conversations, and not only about squash but about other stuff that happens in life off court. And then on court you’re kind of friends, but on court, he’s the one that if he feels like you need someone to yell at you, he will do it. But at the same time, he knows when to do the right balance. If you’re feeling too sad or being too harsh on yourself, he just says it’s okay, everything’s going to be fine. So I think if an athlete can find this coach, where they feel like they have this special relationship with them, they’re very lucky. They’re very lucky. I think it’s all about that in sports. Coaches do leave a very big mark in your life, I think they do not only teach you on court, but they do teach you off court, because they’re the ones that you spend most of the time with, not only during practice, but also during matches. These are very tough moments and if you go through it together, it’s just unexplainable. It’s just special, I think. You do remember these days, you do remember when you’re down and that he pushed you through the marsh and then it brings out of you something that you didn’t know you have. He gives you more confidence from going through something like a very tough match. I think…I don’t know…I always think that two people that will have a huge impact in your life will be the coach and the teacher. I think these are the two people that you will always remember when you’re 40 or 50. You’ll remember that, I think.

Brian
I think that’s really well said and obviously you’ve been fortunate to have surrounded yourself with such great people. I think we could probably go through everybody on your team and hear stories of the difference that they’ve made in your life and I know you appreciate having them around you. Nouran, most of our listeners and viewers obviously aren’t professional squash players but the vast majority aspire to achieve at a very high level in their chosen profession. What advice do you have for those of us who want to reach the highest level of whatever we want to do in life?

Nouran
I think just having this theme in front of you, truly believing in yourself, because no one else is going to believe in you more than yourself. Obviously, you need to surround yourself with people that push you to be a better, not only player, but a better person in general, I think. It definitely helps how you’re conducting yourself off court, obviously reflects on court, so I always say if you don’t believe in yourself, no one else is going to believe in you. Being ready to not give up on things and being ready to know that it’s going get tough, being ready to not giving up, being ready to know that it’s going to happen, that you’re going to have really bad days, like, really, really bad days. But if you push through these days, it’s only going to get better. I think, just having this goal. When I was nine years old, I remember I had this paper hanging on my wall and it was written on it: one day, I will become world number one and World Champion. I would wake up every single day, see this paper, so even if I had the worst day of my life the day before that, I know that I have a goal, something that I want to pursue and something that I think it’s worth every single tear, every single sweat, every single something bad. I just keep on going and I’m not giving up.

Brian
That’s wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing that. There are so many wonderful lessons, I think, packed into not only what you just said, but some of the things that you’ve shared throughout the show. One of the things that I noticed in doing research for the show is the disproportionate number of Egyptian players in the top ten in the world. I looked and went through the top ten in both men and women, and half of the top ten men and women are Egyptian. How big is squash in Egypt and why do you believe your country is so dominant in the sport?

Nouran
Recently, squash is becoming huge. I think that’s the most [popular] sport after soccer, soccer is the most popular sport but squash is the most popular individual sport. It’s because of all the success that we’re having right now, I think. But how it started, I have different ideas for that. I don’t know what is the element specifically, but there are different things that helped to achieve that. I think the first thing is the tournament at the pyramids, it was Ahmed Barada. We had Ahmed Barada, I think it was in the 90s and he was the hero of squash. During that time, he was the only Egyptian in the top two or top three at that time. The tournament at the pyramids was huge. Thousands of people will go and watch, it was a very big event. The sport was supported by the president as well at that time, so [it] had a lot of support. I think all the men in the top ten right now that you see used to go and watch him play during that tournament. They’re like, okay, we want to become like him, we want to be like him. So having this icon obviously helps generations to believe that they’re able to reach this level. Right now we have Mohamed Salah in soccer. He’s Egyptian and he made it to Liverpool and he’s one of the best athletes. He’s one of the best soccer players. That wasn’t even a thing in Egypt but right now, kids are believing that they can do the same because they found an example, a living example, in front of them doing that so that’s one thing, and then I think that made more parents and more juniors eager to play. So in a tournament in Egypt, like a national tournament, a club tournament, under [age] 11, from 250 to 300 kids competing. Obviously, with all this huge competition, there are five or ten people that think kids are going to be great. This huge competition makes them very eager and you find a kid that is nine years old and he has a whole team behind him: he has a nutritionist, he has a fitness coach…you don’t find this in any other [place] they take it very seriously from a very young age. Now, on the women’s side, I think it started with…we had a lot of women playing in junior especially and achieving but they would always talk like it wasn’t a common thing for a woman in Egypt to play professionally. I think it really started with Omneya (Omneya Abdel Kawy) who made it to the final of the World Championship and was top four in the world. But who took it to another level is Raneem for sure, Raneem El Welily, she was the first ever Arab female athlete to win number one in any sport. This is huge, being an Egyptian and win [sic] number one, and not any Arab country made it in any other sport, this is such a big achievement. I got the chance, and I was very lucky, to be training at the same club as Raneem. So I would see her day in day out, how she trains, how she conducted herself, I had the chance to be playing in her era. I got the chance to see her during matches, how she would have tough matches and how she would go and win them at the end. She helped me a lot at the beginning as well when I started playing on tour, she would coach me during matches. I think having this definitely for the women, for the Egyptian women, definitely played a big role. Now when they see the top three in the women’s are Egyptians, they truly believe that they can make it up there. I think this actually gives them extra confidence that they know they’re Egyptian and other Egyptians made it to the top. So why not? We can do it.

Brian
Contrast that with squash here in the US. I don’t think we have any American men’s players in the top 20. We do have some top women players, one currently in the top ten I think, maybe three in the top 20. What’s the state of squash in the US from your perspective?

Nouran
I think that US has done a great improvement, huge improvement. Recently, I actually attended the Nationals, which was at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center. I was there just having some training sessions and I can see some similarities with national tournaments in Egypt now. I can see tons of players playing, I can see the center, it has many, many players, like 100 or something. I can see how coaches and parents, especially, are so eager for the kids to win and they’re taking it very seriously. I don’t think it was the case maybe 10-15 years ago. I definitely think that squash, with the inclusion in the Olympics for 2028, has done a huge impact and has made US squash looking for even more improvement, even if [now] they (men) don’t have a top 20 player, but I’m pretty sure someone is going to get there in the coming years. But in the women’s side, there are four top 20 US women players in the top 20 and two in the top ten which never happened before. I think we can definitely see it as a rising country in squash in terms of numbers maybe. You can see that US is just [the] number two country after Egypt, I think.

Brian
You mentioned the Olympics and that it will be included. It was recently announced that it will be included in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. How significant is that for the sport? It’s been a very long time coming, probably should have happened a long time ago but it’s going to start in 2028.

Nouran
It’s just a dream for any squash player to be playing in the Olympics. I think that’s the biggest stage that you want to play on. I just think that squash, that’s the least that they deserve because I think we’re tremendous athletes, technically, physically. Squash is one of the hardest physical sports on Earth, it’s so demanding, very hard, very hard movements, and you have the endurance aspect. It combines everything in the physicality aspect and tactically as well. It’s very tactical. So I don’t see a reason why it shouldn’t be an Olympic sport. Fighting to get into the Olympics is such a dream, but something that we truly deserve. I think, for me personally, to be chosen as the athlete representative for the presentation that we made for the early 2028 committee was a huge, huge honor for me. I was truly honored to be a small part of it. Obviously, there’s a huge work that has been done behind it but to be part of this successful attempt was something that we’ll always be very, very honored with. I think it’s very exciting news for the whole squash community. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the squash community as happy and as excited as when they knew the news about squash being included. I do remember, for example, we were playing a World Championship in Chicago in 2019, I think, and we got the news that we’re not included in Paris. It was just very sad. We were playing the World Championship which is one of the biggest events of your life, but we truly deserve to be there and we do everything to be an elite and very professional sport. So why aren’t we there? We do deserve that so I’m glad that we got what we deserve, I think.

Brian
Will we see you in Los Angeles in 2028?

Nouran
Yes, that’s the goal for sure. I’ll do everything to be able to be there.

Brian
What will that mean to you personally to represent Egypt in the Olympics?

Nouran
It will mean everything, it will mean everything. I think by playing professionally, you don’t really get the chance to carry the flag of your country that much. We just do it when we’re playing world teams. Or when you’re playing juniors, when you’re playing the World Junior Championship. To get the chance to represent Egypt on a very big stage like this would mean the world to me, and I just hope I can do it. My husband right now is a few weeks away from competing in Paris; we’re hoping we can do it, both of us to LA and it will be very cool to be in different sports and representing the same country. So that’s the aim and that’s the dream. Hopefully we can get there.

Brian
That would be awesome. I hope to see you there. Nouran, as you know, our show is called LifeExcellence and you operate – as we’ve been talking – at a very high level as a professional squash player. I wonder what does excellence mean to you?

Nouran
That’s a very nice question. I think excellence, it’s very hard to achieve, but it is achievable. There is nothing perfect. There is a difference between excellence and perfect, I think. Perfection is so hard, there’s nothing perfect in this world, I think, while excellence, you can achieve that but you have to do everything very, very well and very, very excellent and very, very neatly and very right. It is achievable but it requires a lot, I think.

Brian
Absolutely. You’ve certainly demonstrated that not only in your sport, but in life. Nouran, one of the things that I admire about you is your desire to inspire and be a role model for young people, especially young girls. Why is it so important for you to not only achieve your own highest potential, but to also inspire others to do the same?

Nouran
Because I was inspired by others. I know how big of a role that played in my life in general. So I want to just give back and do the same with the younger girls, because I know how big of an impact that has when you inspire someone, especially girls. It wasn’t a common thing to be studying full time and playing professionally on a very high level. I did actually graduate from construction engineering the same month [that] I reached world number one. And this is something that I’ve always wanted to prove because when I started my studies everyone was against that, everyone would tell me you would never get there. It’s so hard to do this. You’re not doing anything good for your career as a professional squash player, you can always study when you’re done. But I always thought, why the stereotype of professional athletes they can’t do anything else, they can only do one thing. I didn’t have someone that I wanted to [follow] so I wanted to be the example of, no, you can be a very good engineer and a very good player at the same time. You can do this if you are willing to do that. But until today, when I find a younger girl coming to me and she’s like, thank you for inspiring me, thank you for pushing me to pursue my dream of becoming an architect or an engineer or a doctor, or anything, and still be able to play; that’s the whole point of what I’m doing, I think.

Brian
I can tell you that you are an inspiration not only for young people, but for anyone who knows you. Nouran, thank you so much for being on the show today. It’s been wonderful getting to know you better and I am so appreciative of you coming on the show today.

Nouran
Thank you for having me. And it’s one of the nicest talks that I’ve had, I’m very happy that you invited me over.

Brian
Me too. I’m happy that you came, it’s been an honor. Thanks for tuning in to LifeExcellence. Please support the show by subscribing, sharing it with others, posting about today’s show with Nouran Gohar on social media, and leaving a rating and review. You can also learn more about me at BrianBartes.com. Until next time, dream big dreams and make each day your masterpiece.