Somali female boxer trumps tradition and odds to qualify for Olympics

Despite having all odds stacked against her, Rama Ali has overcome setbacks of losing her brother, keeping her career under the wraps, fleeing her country and poor preparation for the Olympics qualifiers to clinch a ticket to the world games.

Ali has now rewritten history as is set to become the first woman from Somalia to represent the country in boxing at the Olympic Games but is facing another hurdle heading into the world even as she will travel to the games without her full team.

The boxer took to Twitter to lament about the poor conditions she has had to endure in the build-up to the Olympic Games but is still determined to soldier on and realise her dream. 

“I will put my professional boxing career on hold whilst concluding the final part of this story and represent my country Flag of Somalia at the games. The conditions have never been ideal, so its only natural that this is no different; a few weeks notice, running around London to sort out my kit, unable to bring any of my support staff (physios, team doctor, S&C coach etc) with me to the games but finding a way, no matter how hard the journey is the way of the African,”

“I guess it was only right we finish this chapter how we started, just me and Richard against the world. Inspiring other young women across my great continent and the diaspora is forever at the forefront of my mind and I couldn’t be prouder to be doing it on this momentous sporting stage,” read part of her threat on Twitter.

Ali first stepped into the ring as a teenager as a weight loss regime and assured her family that she would not make it a profession but her passion rapidly developed and she was forced to hide her love for the sport.

Her parents enrolled her into law school and she agreed to trade the ring for the courtroom but she struggled to keep up with employment at a London law firm and moved back to boxing after six months, citing crazy working hours.

Ali who does not know her exact age fled Mogadishu while she was young after her brother was killed by a stray grenade with the family making their way to Britain in a dilapidated boat.

Her ticket to the Olympics was still in the dark but a breakthrough in 2017 saw the Somali Boxing Federation set up after she issued an interview with one of the media stations in Somalia.

Ali is also the first male or female boxer in history to have won an international gold medal for the country beating Kenya's Beatrice Akoth on points at the Dakar International Expo Centre.

Aside from boxing Ali has also seen her career in modelling take off as she has graced the covers of several magazines including British Vogue, the Wall Street Journal, Guardian Observer.