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With no food or water between sun up and sun down, but still performing at an optimum level, is a challenge Muslim athletes tackle every year.
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Published Mar 21, 2024 • Last updated Mar 22, 2024 • 6 minute read
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Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder Ali Ahmed runs hard during practice at UBC, but any water break will have to wait until sunset, in accordance with Ramadan. Photo by Jason Payne /PNG
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It’s one thing to play hungry. It’s another thing entirely to play with hunger.
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Just ask Ali Ahmed.
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“Honestly, I look forward to this month,” said the Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder, who, as a practising Muslim, is observing Ramadan — Islam’s holy month of fasting, reflection, prayer and community.
“Last year, I think I had four of my stronger games (during Ramadan). Some of the guys on the team are even making jokes like ‘Ramadan Ali is coming back’ or ‘Ramadan Ali is better than Hoodie Melo‘ or stuff like that.
“But I look forward to this month. Putting it into words, it’s like a shower to the soul. It cleanses the soul, and once that happens, it opens up so much more.”
Ahmed scored during Ramadan last season, in a 5-0 home win over Montreal, as well as adding an assist. The night before it officially started this season, he scored against San Jose. Those were two of the three regular-season goals he’s had in his short MLS career.
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During Ramadan, from sunrise to sunset, Muslims abstain from food or water for a month. It’s one of the most sacrosanct times of the year.
For professional athletes though, it poses immense challenges. Nutrition and hydration are near the top of the list for keeping their hyper-tuned bodies functioning.
But the mental aspect might be the toughest.
“When you go back to my religion … it teaches you the most important aspect in our religion is discipline and to have some patience. So the whole point of Ramadan obviously is to teach us to have patience, and to be disciplined,” said Whitecaps centreback Belal Halbouni. “The first week is always the hardest. And as time goes on, your mind starts to tell your body that ‘I can control you,’ and I feel like that’s the most important thing. And as the weeks and days go on, it feels like second nature.”
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“When the sun goes down, I try to have my electrolytes with my water and keep my electrolyte intake and water intake as high as I can. But the water part is pretty hard. … Food you can live without but the water’s the most important,” says Whitecaps’ Belal Halbouni. Photo by Jason Payne /PNG
The Whitecaps players say they’re blessed to have a strong support network in the team’s staff, especially from Joanna Irvine, the team’s sport dietitian, who’s developed individualized nutrition plans according to each player’s needs. There’s questions about tolerance, in terms of how fast they can digest food or absorb water. Wingbacks run more than centrebacks, so their hydration strategy might look different to each other.
In the morning, it’s about carb loading to store blood sugars and protein for a slower release thought the day. Usually, most players aim to eat 2-2.5 grams of carbs per kilo of body weight 2-3 hours before a game, but with Ramadan, it’s not possible.
“With each player, we look at what they typically do,” said Irvine, a UBC grad who’s been with the Whitecaps since 2021.
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“What do they have in the morning? And then considerations around making sure that they’re fuelling or get enough fuel before sunup, and then what happens at sundown.
So there’s a period in there where we’re kind of trying to support better performance in terms of maximizing the time before they get up and then recovery after sundown.”
In years past, players fasting for Ramadan might not have been able to take water or a quick energy bar until halftime in games. But leagues around the world, including MLS, have instituted water breaks at sundown local time to allow players to drink and grab a quick snack. Gone are the days of players faking injuries to sneak in an unscheduled break.
Ahmed and Halbouni’s teammates have been accepting and supporting, and one has even gone a step further. Forward Levonte Johnson, who is not Muslim, is fasting in solidarity along with them.
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The Brampton native was first introduced to the annual observance by a Palestinian friend in high school, and he was intrigued.
“I was like, ‘OK, I’ll try it. … OK, this is interesting.’ It’s a lot harder than I thought it’d be mentally. And I felt good,” said Johnson, who did the same at Syracuse University for other Muslim teammates.
“I feel like the hardest part of fasting is not the physical part. I believe our body is so much stronger than our mind knows it to be. And just the fact that we can go the whole day without eating and then play a 90-minute match, and on top of that going through that for a whole month and sustain that, just shows how strong our body can be.
“But for sure the mental part is the hardest part for me.”
Daydreams of Oreo cheesecake dance in their heads, and the thirst can be oppressive at times, but they say breaking through that wall leads to a more expansive focus. The dates they eat to break their fast, in following with custom, taste sweeter, the water more refreshing.
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And after prayers, it’s meal time.
“I actually think about this a lot because you’re starving for 13, 14 hours of the day,” said Halbouni. “Right as soon as you want to break your fast it feels like you want to eat a whole cow … but you’re full within five minutes. It shows you how your eyes can deceive.
“You try to eat so much, and then your body shuts down within five minutes of eating because you’re already full. So the 14 hours of starving it doesn’t really mean much; you get to learn the bigger picture of the whole fast.”
“The food part is really not the main achievement,” said Ahmed. “You just try to make sure you make the most of your 30 days. … You just basically restrain and restrict yourself on the intake of the body, and focus on the intake to the soul.”
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Halbouni sits down to a healthy meal of chicken, rice, broccoli, and occasionally treats himself to dessert — like the aforementioned cheesecake — while Johnson’s meal of choice is a lamb donair. Ahmed is lucky that his aunt Amatula lives in Surrey, and invites him over for Iftar — the fast-breaking meal — whenever he’s in town or not cooking. The latter, he says, is the one downside of the annual rite.
“Ramadan is probably only month that I actually go crazy in the kitchen,” he said on Wednesday. “But it’s starting to get to me. Ten days in and I haven’t ordered food once. But it got me today … I think today I’m not even looking at the kitchen. It’s because you have to eat, then you got to clean it all up as well. So, you know, today I think I will reward myself for going hard for 10 days.”
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QUICK FACTS
— Ramadan follows the lunar calendar, beginning on the crescent moon in the ninth month of each lunar year. The first day is Hilal, the Arabic word for crescent moon. As the lunar cycle is constantly moving backwards, Ramadan begins 11 days earlier than the year before.
— The pre-dawn meal is called suhoor, which ends when the sun rises and morning prayer (Fajr) begins. Some choose to sleep rather than prepare food and eat during suhoor.
— The daily fast is broken with dates and water, before evening prayers (Maghrib) then the main evening meal: Iftar.
— Ramadan ends with a three-day celebration, Eid al-Fitr, which means ‘feast of breaking the fast.’ It starts when the next new moon is sighted, meaning the precise date differs around the world.
jadams@postmedia.com
@jjadams.bsky.social
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Courtesy : https://theprovince.com/sports/soccer/mls/vancouver-whitecaps/ramadan-a-mental-test-for-pro-athletes