Asma Al Hosani was moved to tears when she draped herself in the UAE flag after successfully defending her jiu-jitsu gold medal at the Asian Games in Japan last week.
The 23-year-old was one of five Emiratis to top the podium in jiu-jitsu at the Games, and was thrilled she was able to retain the -52kg gold medal she first claimed in Hangzhou three years ago.
The UAE claimed eight jiu-jitsu medals in total in Japan, the most among all participating nations, and Al Hosani assures it is no coincidence.
“Honestly, I was really moved when I held the flag after my fight because I felt like my country deserves this achievement,” Al Hosani told The National upon her return to Abu Dhabi.
“It’s important to thank God for the things we have. When we travel abroad, we thank God for the UAE for providing us with coaches and training centres and everything we need. It makes me feel like I need to give my best for the sake of the UAE. Because it deserves it.”
Like scores of Emiratis across the country, Al Hosani was introduced to jiu-jitsu at school from a young age, thanks to the sport’s inclusion in public school curricula – a process that began nearly two decades ago, championed by President Sheikh Mohamed, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince at the time.
“Jiu-jitsu was something new for us. We were more used to basketball and football, but a contact sport like this, a martial art, it was a bit strange for us,” Al Hosani recalls.
“We also wear the hijab, which is something different in this sport. But when I got into it, I felt that it has something special.
“It helped me leave my comfort zone. I was a bit introverted in school; I had a specific group of friends, but in jiu-jitsu, you see people of different ages, different nationalities; it brings together people of all nationalities in one place. That’s what attracted me to this sport; it’s that it has diversity. I felt that it changed me a lot. I became more sociable. I felt like it gave me another family.”
Al Hosani grew up in Al Dhafra and had to go back and forth to Abu Dhabi to train when she was still at school. Upon graduation, she moved to Abu Dhabi to study mechanical engineering at Khalifa University, and it was then that she felt she could really build a career in jiu-jitsu.
“When I moved to Abu Dhabi, I felt that I could be a champion in this sport and that I could give more to this sport. I felt that things changed for me and this sport became very close to my heart,” she added.
Al Hosani carved a path for herself in jiu-jitsu, and in 2024 became the first Emirati woman to reach the finals in the brown- and black-belt categories at the World Pro in Abu Dhabi.
At the Asian Games in Hangzhou three years ago, Al Hosani became the first Emirati woman to win a gold medal in martial arts, and she says returning to the continental stage as the reigning champion came with higher expectations.
“In the Asian Games, the first time I trained for it, I was there to help the girls who were participating in it, because I was still underage,” she reflected.
“So when I started training for it as an athlete competing in the event, it was different. I thought to myself, ‘This is the chance Asma; take all the chance, and give 100 per cent for that chance. We don't know what will happen next’. This is what I thought: I have to take advantage of every opportunity I have. The UAE did everything for us, it's just a five-minute fight, so go for it.
“I tried to give my best, everything I had, in the Asian Games to retain my title. And thank God, I was able to do it.”
Future ambitions
Al Hosani’s journey doesn't end here. The Baniyas club fighter has her eyes set on clinching gold at next month’s Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship, and she has dreams she hopes to achieve both on the mat and off it. One is to see the sport added to the Olympic programme.
“Jiu-jitsu is a great sport. It's very exciting. You feel it has several martial arts rolled into one. It has judo, it has wrestling, it has grappling, it has striking, it's so interesting to see,” she explained.
“People deserve to see it. It has everything. Jiu-jitsu requires physical skills and a great deal of mental skills too. You have to be smart with the scoreboard, know when to score points, when to concede points. I hope one day it will be in the Olympics.”
No Emirati woman has ever taken gold in the black belt at the World Pro, and Al Hosani is keen on changing that.
Separately, she wants to help usher in the next generation of Emirati fighters and has already begun coaching in her spare time.
“My next ambition is to be a coach. I started with this, but I want to have my team. I want to have the feeling of being a coach, seeing my team fighting. Especially the kids, it's so nice to see them fighting. It's so nice when you teach them something and then you see them doing it,” she said.
World Pro dream driving Al Shehhi
Khaled Al Shehhi has similar ambitions. Like Al Hosani, Al Shehhi returned from Japan having successfully defended his Asian Games gold medal in the -62kg event.
The 23-year-old says the first gold “was hard, but the second one was harder”, knowing he went there with all eyes on him in his weight class.
But conquering Asia is not Al Shehhi’s endgame. “Since I started in jiu-jitsu, I had a goal that I focused on, which is to win the world title in the black belt. That is my main goal and I haven't achieved it yet. But the championship is in a month and I hope to get it done,” said Al Shehhi, who has reached the final twice.
“The reason I am hungry to achieve more and more and more is because I haven’t achieved the one goal I set out for myself from the beginning yet.”
Al Shehhi initially trained in judo with his older brother, but when he was introduced to jiu-jitsu as a 10-year-old in school, he liked the fact that it involved more grappling, which played to his strengths.
He wasn’t too committed in his first couple of years of training but started getting serious about jiu-jitsu and won a silver at the World Pro in 2015.
“My coach at the time had full confidence in me and he told me that I would become a great player one day. I didn't believe him. I just said, insha’Allah,” Al Shehhi recalled.
“Since then, whenever I win a big tournament, I remember his words.”
Al Shehhi sees jiu-jitsu as a healthy outlet – a tool to step away from the stresses of life and a positive environment in which he can expend his energy.
He believes he has what it takes to win gold next month and, like Al Hosani, has already started dabbling in coaching, first at Al Ain Club, and now through a team called Namoos, which he created with a friend in Abu Dhabi.
He still sees himself competing for at least another decade, though. “Jiu-jitsu changed my life,” he says.
It might change even more if he gets that world title next month.
