Mohamed Attaoui: “Running is who I am.”

Words by Andy McGrath. Photography by James Rhodes, Hanniel Hu, Sportmedia. Lea Kurth.

Mohamed Attaoui’s friends have an evocative nickname for the deceptively-slight, nimble runner: the Rabbit. Bounding around his home city of Torrelavega in northern Spain, he brims with bottomless energy, setting the pace for others to follow. In race mode, Attaoui’s finishing surge leaves the middle-distance field chasing his tail.

Then a succession of second places started. Attaoui was runner-up at the under-23 European championships 1,500 meters final in 2023, and second in Spain’s 800 meters national championship that summer too.

At June’s European Championships in 2024, the 22-year-old burst onto the international scene. In the first half of the 800m final, he ran at the very back for the first lap. In the second half, Attaoui turned it on – he moved past six rivals, with just a single front-runner holding him off.

Rabbits are usually prey, not predators. Not this one. With his lightning closing speed, Attaoui seems to move as fast as his competitors into the home straight. 

At the Monaco Diamond League event a month later, he beat several more experienced campaigners, running to 1:42:04, a personal best by two seconds and a new Spanish record. 

You can guess in which position he finished though. Accordingly, his nickname was upgraded to the “Silver Rabbit”. Attaoui doesn’t mind; it’s no small feat in a race that he believes is the hardest in athletics.

“You can go out in the first round or take a medal in the final,” he says. “At the moment, I prefer it to the 1500 meters, which is much easier to run. You have more time to decide what to do there. You have four laps to do it and move. In the 800, the first lap is so fast and you have to do everything in a second lap. Running at the front or the back, it’s always a problem.”

Attaoui’s final kick is his most effective weapon, but he’s got to be in the right place to use it. By his own admission, he ran “like a beginner” in his European championships qualifying heat. His coach at On Athletics Club (OAC) Europe, Thomas Dreissigacker, told him to race from the rear and use his turn of speed in the last quarter of the race. “But I didn’t listen, took the lead and went through the first 400 meters in 50 seconds. It was so hard for me,” Mohamed says. He could only manage fifth.

He’s a fast learner. Once through to the semi-final by way of running a fast time, he followed the coach’s plan to the letter and went all the way to the podium. “Not only did I win a medal, I took a lesson of how I have to run: in a slow race and a fast race, I know I can always run well from the back,” he says.

The quickfire races in which he excels are not just proof points of pure ability and timing, they’re tests of character. Fresh-faced Attaoui uses three Spanish words to describe his own: “timido, humilde and luchador.” Shy, humble and a fighter. 

In childhood, Attaoui faced challenges. Born in the Moroccan city of Beni Mellal in September 2001, he spent his first six years in the north African country. His father Salah, a former farmer, joined his brother in northern Spain, heeding the country’s need for construction industry workers. After a few years, the rest of the Attaoui family followed.

With Attaoui, his mother Saadea, three brothers and one sister, theirs was a big party. “He sent an invitation and made papers. It sounds easy, but it’s not, you have to do a lot of things,” Attaoui explains. “Now it would be impossible.” They settled in Torrelavega, close to the Cantabrian coast, where the Atlantic surf crashes onto the shore.

The young “Moha” had energy to burn. “When I came here, I couldn’t stop,” he says. “If I saw something, I went for it. I really like moving, doing things.” A first glimpse of his speed and endurance came playing soccer in the park, for hours on end, just 20 meters from his home. As a kid, he won many city-wide cross-country races held from March to June. In the fourth year of his prolific performances, the athletics club of Torrelavega picked him up, along with his three brothers. 

Attaoui has spent hours on YouTube watching the races of middle-distance running icon from his country of birth, Hicham El Guerrouj. What would he say if he met the 1500-meter world record holder? “How can you run so fast? 3:26:00!” he says, laughing. 

Attaoui sadly lost his father to cancer in 2015. He stopped athletics for a couple of years and his school work was affected. “I didn’t want to do anything,” he says. “But finally, I started again at the age of 17, and came back better and stronger.”

Thinking of his late father is a motivation for Attaoui in a sport which fits him. “Running makes me happy in any situation, it makes me forget everything,” he says. “It’s something which describes how I am.”

Attaoui's journey to finesse his form started in earnest, when he "came back stronger" as a more mature athlete, as Spanish under-23 champion in 2022 over 1500 meters. 

He changed his lifestyle, aiming to be the best he could be. He started working with a local nutritionist, who was with leading Spanish professional cycling team Movistar.

Another key step-up was joining On Athletics Club (OAC) Europe in November 2023. Long months at altitude in St. Moritz during the summer and South Africa in the winter have done him a world of good, with easy runs or threshold training together. The easygoing Attaoui gets on with everyone in the young group, with Sebi Frey, George Mills, Luke McCann, Jolanda Kallabis and compatriot Marta Garcia eliciting special mention.

Attaoui swapped his previous harder training, doing only 60 to 70 kilometers per week, for more volume, sometimes doing double that in South Africa. His recovery between the first round, semi and final at major championships has improved exponentially. “I feel I’m much better in all aspects,” he says. 

The man guiding Attaoui and the eleven other OAC Europe runners, Thomas Dreissigacker, has helped to find solutions for any challenges he might have. “He’s more than a coach. He’s trying to make you comfortable with everything. To just make you think about training and recovery, nothing else,” Attaoui says. “It’s perfect. This year, in this group, I’m really more professional.”

Come 2024, Attaoui made the 800m final in Paris, despite “running badly” in the semi-final by his own admission. In the final, he finished fifth in the world, just 0.04 seconds away from his personal best.

His ambitions don’t end there. Attaoui is also hoping to run under 3:34 in the 1,500 meters. “I’m young, I want to continue learning and training in a healthy way,” he says. “Trying to make myself better every day. My dream is to win a world stage medal, but we have time. 2024 was my first Games.”

Get used to seeing Attaoui showing his incredible turn of speed, and contending for the biggest races. It might not be long until the Silver Rabbit gets another upgrade. “Golden Rabbit sounds better to me,” Attaoui says, laughing.