OUMIHA. Silver medalist in Rio in 2016, Sofiane Oumiha will experience his third Olympic Games this summer in Paris. Biography, record, discover who the French boxer is.
Sofiane Oumiha is a French boxer born on December 23, 1994 in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne). It is in the Reynerie district, where his parents originally from Morocco live, that he grew up and where he started boxing very young, at only 7 years old. To do like his father, also a boxer. During his youth, Sofiane Oumiha won several French champion titles, before demonstrating his talent at the international level. He joined INSEP in 2014 and switched to the senior category at 20 years old.
French amateur champion in 2014 and 2015, Sofiane Oumiha qualified for the Rio Olympic Games in 2016 by winning the European Olympic qualifying tournament. In Brazil, the Toulouse native shone and left with a silver medal, after a defeat in the final against the Brazilian Robson Conceição in the lightweight category (-60kg). A medal that established Oumiha in the boxing panorama. Unlike Tony Yoka, however, he decided, after much hesitation, not to turn professional and to remain among the amateurs with a view to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. In 2017, he won the gold medal at the World Championships in Hamburg, thus becoming the lightweight world champion.
Considered one of the best amateur boxers in his category, Sofiane Oumiha also won several medals at the European Boxing Championships and continued to represent France in various international competitions. But in Tokyo, in 2021, the Toulouse native fell from a great height by losing in the round of 16 of the boxing tournament in the -63 kg category. This defeat pushed him not to completely abandon amateur boxing in order to be able to shine at the Paris Olympics 2024. Amateur world champion for the 3rd time in 2023 (a unique performance in French boxing), Sofiane Oumiha has great hopes of a medal this summer in Paris and hopes to forget the disappointment of Tokyo.
Why does he describe himself as an “average person”?
While the world of boxing is often made up of oversized egos, Sofiane Oumiha stands out for his simplicity. After his silver medal at the Rio Olympics, the Toulouse boxer assured that everyone was capable of doing what he had achieved. “If I succeeded, everyone can succeed. I’m an average person.” The Haut-Garonnais explains that this humility and discretion comes from his parents’ education, which kept him away from the “solicitations” of his childhood neighborhood. “I’ve always been like that, I was raised like that. Smile and work in silence. I let the results take care of the noise.” The least we can say is that it works.
What is Sofiane Oumiha’s track record?
Sofiane Oumiha has not won any major titles among professionals but has a solid track record among amateurs. He obviously won a silver medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016 (-60kg) but also three world champion titles (2017, 2021 and 2023). Senior French champion in 2014 and 2015, he also won two gold medals (2013 and 2018), as well as a silver medal (2015), at the Mediterranean Games.