Al-Gendi gold

Egypt’s Ahmed Al-Gendi became the first Egyptian and African athlete to win an Olympic modern pentathlon gold medal when he finished first at Paris 2024. The 24-year-old thus jumped a step higher in the sport after claiming the silver medal in Tokyo 2020. Al-Gendi had been suffering from shoulder injuries since Tokyo.

Al-Gendi told the media in Paris that he was nervous after falling off his horse in the semi-finals but was faultless in the show jumping final. “I was in doubt and under stress and pressure. We were planning for it after the riding and we corrected the mistakes.”

In Paris, Al-Gendi also made more history, setting a new 1,555-point world record and a new 1,516-point Olympic record.

The Egyptian super pentathlete had a 17-second start for the laser run, which is the combined event running and shooting, the final phase of the competition. In the laser run, he took the lead from the beginning and received no opposition from his fellow competitors, winning by 13 seconds over Japan’s Taishu Sato and Italy’s Giorgio Malan who claimed the bronze.

Al-Gendi is now to receive LE5 million in prize money.

This is the last time to see the modern pentathlon in the Olympic Games in this format. The equestrian phase will be replaced by an obstacle course starting from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

 

Weightlifter in tears

Egyptian weightlifter Sara Ahmed Samir upgraded her Olympic status by winning the silver medal in the 81kg weightlifting event in Paris. At the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, Samir claimed the bronze medal.

Happy she was, yet she went into tears, but this time they weren’t tears of joy but of sadness as she was targeting the gold medal. Samir then took to social media to apologise to fans, media and officials for not getting the gold. “My target was the gold, I really wanted to win the gold, I did my best but couldn’t. Sorry.”

The 26-year-old Samir lifted a total 268kg, 117kg in the snatch and 151 in the clean and jerk, thus finishing second with the gold medal going to Norway’s Solfrid Eila Amena Koanda who set an Olympic record by lifting 275kg - 121kg in the snatch and 154kg in the clean and jerk. Ecuador’s Neisi Patricia Dajomes Barrera secured the bronze with a total lift of 267kg, lifting 122kg in the snatch and 145kg in the clean and jerk.

The sensational Samir, the 2022 world champion, suffered a setback in her third snatch attempt at 119kg after successful lifts of 113kg and 117kg in her initial two attempts. She managed a successful first clean and jerk at 146kg but fell short in her final attempt at 155kg.

For her silver medal, Samir is to receive LE4 million in prize money.

“I promise you the gold in the next Olympics, Los Angeles 2028,” Samir said.

Minister of Youth and Sports Ashraf Sobhi has named a youth centre in Ismailia, Samir’s home town, after her. The centre is now known as Sara Samir Youth Centre.

 

Bonus increase

While the Paris Games were taking place and after the first medal was won for Egypt by Mohamed Al-Sayed in fencing, a bronze, the Egyptian Olympic Committee (EOC) significantly increased the prize money for medal winners.

Head of the EOC Yasser Idris announced in a statement last week that gold medalists will now receive LE5 million. Silver and bronze medalists will get LE4 million and LE3 million respectively. In addition, each medalist will receive a 1,000 euro bonus and a luxury watch.

The decision came after Egypt secured one gold, one silver and one bronze.

Al-Sayed was the first Egyptian to win a medal in Paris. Immediately, he received 1,000 euros in prize money and is now waiting to receive the bronze medal prize money in Cairo when modern pentathlon Ahmed Al-Gendi and weightlifter Sara Samir, who won a gold and silver respectively, return home.

 

2012 London bronze retroactively

Egyptian weightlifter Tarek Yehia Abdel-Azim received his bronze medal from the 2012 London Olympics following the reallocation of medals.

Yehia’s bronze medal, at a ceremony held at Champions Park near the Eiffel Tower, comes after Russian lifter Apti Aukhadov was disqualified and stripped of his silver medal.

This led to Abdel-Azim, who originally placed fourth, being elevated to third place and awarded the bronze.

Competing in the 85kg weight class at the 2012 London Olympics, Abdel-Azim lifted 160kg in the snatch and 205kg in the clean and jerk, finishing fourth.

Aukhadov was suspended in November 2012 after a lengthy appeal process.

Abdel-Azim had requested that the International Olympic Committee present his bronze medal during the Paris 2024 Olympics. He received it before the start of the weightlifting event.

 

Wrestler released

French authorities released Egyptian Olympic wrestler Mohamed ‘Kesho’ Ibrahim after allegations of sexual assault were dropped due to lack of evidence, the Egyptian Olympic Committee (EOC) said.

The 26-year-old wrestler had been arrested for allegedly “groping a woman in a bar” as stated by the Paris prosecutors’ office.

In a statement released earlier this week, the EOC said video footage from the incident scene showed no assault. “The investigations were dropped as video footage from the cameras surrounding the incident did not show any assault by the player towards the woman,” the statement said.

According to the EOC, after his release, Kesho headed directly from the police station to Charles de Gaulle Airport on a flight to Egypt. The wrestler, bronze medalist at the Tokyo Games, was defeated by Azerbaijan’s Hasrat Jafarov in the 67kg Greco-Roman wrestling event at the Paris Games.

The EOC suspended Kesho after his arrest, initiating an investigation into the allegations. The EOC ethics panel will now focus on investigating the player’s failure to return to the Egyptian camp on time after being granted permission to watch the final in his weight category, the EOC statement added.

 

Moroccan massacre

Egypt’s men’s national football team suffered a humiliating 6-0 loss to Morocco in the third-place playoff for a bronze medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Last Thursday’s game was Egypt’s first-ever chance of winning a medal in the Olympic football event.

It has now lost the bronze medal match for the third time after 1928 in Stockholm and 1964 in Tokyo.

In Paris, Egypt had suffered a 3-1 defeat to hosts France in the semi-finals following a respectable performance, which gave the fans hope ahead of the Morocco clash.

However, in Nantes it suffered an embarrassing defeat to their North African rivals to settle for fourth place.

In addition to Omar Fayed’s absence because of suspension and Ahmed Eid’s injury, the Pharaohs suffered yet another blow as Ahmed Sayed Zizo was forced off the pitch with an injury and was replaced by Mustafa Saad in the first half.

It was all downhill from here for the Egyptians as first Abde Ezzalzouli curled a shot into the top corner to give Morocco the lead in the 23rd minute, before Soufiane Rahimi doubled the lead with a header just three minutes later.

Only six minutes after the restart, Bilal El Khannous killed off the game by scoring a third goal with a shot from outside the box.

A through ball saw Rahimi go one-on-one with goalkeeper Hamza Alaa, before putting the ball past him for a fourth goal in the 64th minute. Rahimi was top scorer in the tournament with eight goals.

Morocco didn’t take their foot off the gas and scored two more goals in the 73rd and 87th minutes through Akram Nakach and Achraf Hakimi, with the latter putting the icing on the cake with a brilliant free-kick.

The win gives Morocco its first-ever medal in Olympics football to follow up on their historic achievement in the 2022 World Cup when they finished fourth.

Former Arsenal midfielder Mohamed Al-Nenni believed the absences alongside the fact that Egypt played 240 minutes against Paraguay and France were the main reason behind the heavy defeat.

“We had some injuries, but we were playing for the win and achieve a historic medal for Egypt,” Al-Nenni told journalists after the game.

“Losing this way hurts and we were tired. We played two matches with extra time and we travelled between a lot of French cities which negatively impacted us.”

It was the first time in the history of men’s football at the Olympics that two African and Arab nations met for third place.

 

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* A version of this article appears in print in the 15 August, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly