Meet Assan and Ousainou Hansen, the German boxing twins aiming to punch their way to the Olympics

Assan and Ousainou Hansen made a pact when they began boxing. They would never fight against each other at the competitive level.

The Gambia-born twin brothers, who moved to Germany at the age of 9, have always been inseperable, so it was no surprise when they both decided to pursue boxing at the age of 11.

“We went to the boxing club, and we fell in love with boxing after the first training session, and we kept at it. We fall in love with the first punch,” Ousainou says during an interview with Olympics.com from the Olympic Centre in Heidelberg.

“Yeah, when we first tried boxing, we fell in love with it, and we said we had to leave all the other sports and focus on boxing,” Assan adds

But their agreement meant one competing in the 63.5kg lightweight class and the other dropping to featherweight 57kg.

That didn't stop them. The siblings excelled in their respective divisions, and both now have a chance of a spot at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

If they qualify, they will become the first set of boxing twins to represent Germany, and the first ever Gambian natives to compete in the sport at the Olympics.

The first punches that got Ousainou and Assan Hansen hooked to boxing

The boxing journey for the twins began when they emigrated from their home in the Gambian capital Banjul to Egelsbach in Offenbach, to join their mum and their German stepdad.

Their father Martin Schmidt, a boxing enthusiast, took them for their first boxing lessons at a local gym.

“We started to box because we watched it on TV. We watched the Klitschko brothers and [it was amazing] to see two brothers successful in boxing and when we saw that, we thought ‘that could be us!’,” says Ousainou.

“We had tried a lot of sports before when we were kids…” Assan, who was born two minutes before Ousainou in Serekunda, carries on.

“We fell in love with boxing after the first training session and kept at it.”

They were energised by the contact sport and always left the club intrigued. They loved attacking, blocking punches, knocking down opponents and, more importantly, the fighting spirit that boxing instilled in them.

“When you're a boxer, you fight for yourself. So, when you lose, it's because of you. And when you win, it's because of you, it was so different from football which we played,” Assan, a five-time national boxing champion recalls.

“When your team loses, it's not because you didn’t play well. Everyone in the team has to give their best. That’s why I loved boxing, it’s like in life you have to fight your fights alone, when you are knocked down….”

“As he says, when you are knocked down in boxing you have to stand up, you have to keep fighting and also do this in life,” says Ousainou, finishing off his brother’s sentence, evident of their close bond that influenced their decision to sign for the same Bundesliga club BSK Hannover-Seelze EV.

“For us as kids, it was also good to know that we can be very strong if you just train and keep doing it. Most people think boxing is just [throwing punches]. Boxing is all about the mind.”

Assan picks up, “boxing is more like chess, you have to think before you punch.”

Assan and Ousanou’s Olympic dream punched into reality

For the last 12 years, the identical twins have risen to the top of German boxing. They have had good times and bad on the way, but they have learnt to take each ring experience in their stride.

“When we were younger, we fought against two sets of brothers, and we always lost,” explains Ousainou, the most talkative of the two brothers.

“That was hard. And then after maybe a couple of fights, we won the first time after losing five times.”

“We learnt that no matter how hard it is, you just have to keep going until you make it.”

“That’s when we also realised that when you keep going it will pay off,” Assan seamlessly picks up the conversation as they kept doing throughout the chat with Olympics.com.

The relentless winning mentality helped them rise to the top of their weight classes, clinching multiple German championships. They were thrilled to follow it up with strong results at the 2022 Cologne Boxing World Cup, an international competition that attracted 16 nations. Ousainou’s gold in the 57 kg was one of seven clinched by German boxers. Assan earned bronze in the 63kg, sharing a podium with one of their idols, Cuban Lazaro Jorge Estrada Alvarez, a three-time Olympic bronze medallist.

That sparked a childhood dream of competing at an Olympics, which had been ignited by Usain Bolt’s incredible dashes at the 2008 Beijing Games.

“We loved to watch the Olympic Games, how people sacrificed their lives to be there and win medals,” says Ousainou.

“I remember us watching Usain Bolt running the 100m, as sprinting is something I could do,” Assan, a proficient counterpuncher, interjects.

The Hansen twins on chasing fame as members of the German boxing squad

Assan’s first stage of qualifying for Paris 2024 has begun at the 2023 European Games in Poland, while Ousainou aims to punch his ticket at the 2024 World Championships.

“Qualifying will mean a lot,” the twins known for their heart and toughness in the ring say in unison.

“This will be an emotional moment for us as it has been our big dream,” says Ousainou, who fights in the lower weight class.

“This country has done a lot for us, and they gave us a chance, and I think we can pay them back by using our boxing talent and winning a gold medal at the Olympics.”

The Hansen brothers could make history as the sixth set of identical twins to compete at the same Olympics in boxing.

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021, Pat and Luke McCormack represented Great Britain. Before them were the Puerto Rican Arroyo brothers (McJoe and McWilliams) at Beijing 2008, the Aslanov’s pair of Fuad and Elnur from Azerbaijan in Athens in 2004, the Skrzecz siblings (Pawel and Grzegorz) from Poland at Moscow 1980, and the Danish Frederiksen twins of Viggo and Kaj at Berlin 1936.

With their separate paths of qualification, the ring in Paris could again unite the Hansen twins. A fist-bump from a brother before their bouts is something they would like to feel when they compete at the highest level of their career.

They not only help each other with the nerves, but are each other’s biggest fans and biggest critics.

“When he is fighting, I am very, very nervous, because at that moment I don’t have the control. He’s the one controlling the fight. When he’s fighting, my heart is just beating faster and faster,” says Ousainou.

“…and it’s the same for me when he’s in the ring. I am more nervous when he is fighting, more than when I am the one fighting.”