Nouran Gohar never pictured herself competing on the professional squash circuit as a mother. The Egyptian expected to play until she was 31 or 32, then step away to focus on family with her husband, Olympic fencer Ziad El Sissy. Instead, at 28, she is preparing to return to the PSA World Tour at the Qatar Classic, just five months after the birth of her daughter, Leyla.
Gohar was ranked world No 1 when she paused after the Egyptian Open last September, having learned during that tournament that she was two months pregnant. She kept practising through seven months of pregnancy, stopping only in the final two months because of complications, and was back doing light training two and a half weeks after giving birth. “I was telling Ziad, I feel like this is not my body. It’s someone else’s,” she said. “But it gets better, if you follow a certain plan and you have the right people beside you.”
Four weeks after the birth she was back on court for solo hitting, and she is now sharpening her game before the platinum event in Qatar that begins on September 12. “Some people thought it would be too early for me to come back in September, but people didn’t know what I was doing during my pregnancy,” she said. “In my head, I knew that I was coming back.”
The decision to pause came at an unusual moment, when her results were peaking but her motivation was fading. “Results-wise I was doing great, but I wasn’t as happy. I felt there was a bit of a void,” she said of her 2024-25 season, one of the best of her career. “Losing was very, very sad, but winning, I wouldn’t feel as happy. So I thought, if winning doesn’t feel as rewarding, then what’s the point?” With squash set to make its Olympic debut at LA 2028, retirement was never the plan. “I needed a new meaning in my life. I needed something to keep on going.”
Competing mothers are rare in squash, and Gohar points to compatriot Nour El Tayeb, who travelled the tour with her daughter before retiring in 2024, as an inspiration. She now plans to travel with Leyla and her parents. Ranked No 66 today after her time away, Gohar is measured about what comes next. “My end goal is to get to world No 1, win another world championship, go to the Olympics and win, but it’s going to be steps,” she said. “I’m approaching it as a marathon, not a sprint.”
