Aya Madani, a three-time Egyptian Olympian in the modern pentathlon, will be representing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the World Urban Forum.

Madani, also an Egyptian MP and a member of the country’s sport and youth commission, will speak at the dialogue “Stronger Together” and “Advancing the Localisation of Sustainable Development Goals through Sport” organised by the IOC.

The 12th World Urban Forum is convening under the theme “It All Starts at Home”.

She took to her social media account to announce her participation as a speaker on 6 and 7 November.

“These sessions will be a great opportunity to showcase how sport can play a pivotal role in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how we can play a pivotal role in achieving SDGs and how we can mainstream sport into a sustainable urban development process,” Madani wrote.

Madani is also an Olympian365 commission member. Olympism365 is the IOC’s strategy to strengthen the role of sport as an important enabler of the UN’s SDGs) goals.

The objectives of this strategy are to ensure more people, from more diverse backgrounds, benefit from participating in community sports programmes and accessing Olympism “365 days a year”; improve society’s recognition of the value and essential service provided by safe, inclusive and sustainable community sports organisations; and enhance impactful collaboration between the sports movement, the social development sector, and for-purpose businesses.

In July, Madani celebrated a new milestone in her journey after being elected a member of the IOC at the 142nd IOC session in Paris. She thus became the youngest of a cohort of eight new IOC members, diving immediately into ceremonial duties at the Olympic Games. One of her first tasks in an official IOC capacity was to present compatriot Ahmed Al-Gendi with his historic modern pentathlon gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games men’s final in Versailles.

A world champion silver medalist in 2008, Madani has been a vocal campaigner and representative in her efforts to give voice to young Egyptian and other Africans as well as female Muslim athletes everywhere.

She went to the Athens, Beijing and London Olympics but failed to medal.

She has won several awards, including from President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi (one of the 10 best women in Egypt in 2017), former president Hosni Mubarak (cup of the best Arab athlete), Secretary General of the League of Arab States Ahmed Abul Gheit and the 2022 Creative Sports Award from Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and vice-president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates.

Madani was a PhD student in Riga Technical University in Latvia in air transport management.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 7 November, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.