Egypt will participate in the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games with its largest-ever delegation.

Fifty-four athletes will represent Egypt across 10 sports: goalball, athletics, rowing, powerlifting, boccia, canoe/kayak, swimming, sitting volleyball, table tennis, and taekwondo.

In the 28 August to 8 September tournament, Egypt will be playing in four disciplines for the first time: rowing, canoe/kayak, boccia and an athlete with an intellectual disability in table tennis.

Powerlifting

Powerlifting, which evolved from weightlifting, made its Paralympic debut at the Tokyo 1964 Games. It was officially included as a Paralympic sport in 1984. The first women’s powerlifting competition was introduced in Sydney 2000. The sport features 20 weight categories: 10 for men and 10 for women.

Egypt’s journey in powerlifting began at the 1988 Seoul Paralympics, where Egyptians snatched two silver medals. Egypt’s powerlifters are title holders and have vast experience as world champions.

Powerlifting will be held from 4-8 September at Arena Porte de La Chapelle, with 13 Egyptian athletes participating, including six women and seven men: Taha Abdel-Majid, Sherif Othman, Mohamed Al-Elfat, Mohamed Al-Menyawi, Amr Mosaad, Mahmoud Sabri, Nadia Fekri, Randa Tageddin, Rehab Ahmed, Fatma Korani, Safaa Hassan, and Inas Al-Gebali.

The team is led by Chilean head coach Andre Achibere, Mohamed Ezzat, Hani Mahmoud, and Shaaban Al-Desouki as coaches with Ali Mohamed as the team’s administrator.

Table tennis

Table tennis has been part of every Paralympics since the first edition held in Rome in 1960. There will be as many as 280 players competing in 31 medal events in Paris.

Table tennis is scheduled at South Paris Arena 4 from 28 August to 8 September.

The team comprises 11 athletes: Ahmed Al-Mahs, Islam Raslan, Sayed Mohamed (Sika), Khaled Abdel-Salam, the oldest athlete in the Egyptian delegation at 57, Abdel-Rahman Bahgat, Ola Suleiman, Fawzia Al-Shami, Mona Abdel-Hak, Hanaa Hamad, Hagar Al-Desouki and Samah Abdel-Aziz. Gamal Zeinhom and Rami Gasser are the women’s and men’s head coaches together with Nasr Ahmed as coach and Essam Zidan as administrator.

Athletics

It has the largest number of participants and medal events in the Games. A total 1,069 athletes will compete across 164 medal events, including the fan-favourite 100m race and marathons, from 30 August to 8 September.  
The world’s best runners, throwers and jumpers will gather in the Stade de France, the country’s largest stadium. The venue, located in Saint-Denis, was originally built for the 1998 World Cup, and since then, has staged some of the world’s biggest sporting moments.  

Egyptian athletes have been consistent participants in athletics, showcasing their prowess in various track and field disciplines. Over the years, they have won multiple medals.  

The team comprises Karim Mahmoud Abdel-Tawab competing in 100 m and 200 m sprint and Abdel-Rahman Shbeib in long jump. The technical staff consists of Mohamed Eissa as head coach and Ahmed Khairi and Ahmed Nasr as coaches.

Swimming

Swimming will take place from 29 August to 7 September at the Paris La Défense Arena. For the first time, the arena, located in Nanterre (92), will be transformed into an Olympic swimming pool.

Egypt’s swimmers are Malak Hussein (100 m breaststroke and 200 m individual medley), Ziad Kahil (200 m freestyle and 100 m breaststroke) and Ziad Tarek in 50 m freestyle.

Kayak

The Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, situated on the leisure island of Vaires-Torcy, will host the rowing and canoe/kayak events from 6 to 8 September.

Egypt secured a place in Paris with one boat for a single athlete via the international quota. Salwa Ehab is the first Egyptian woman to qualify in the kayak. Accompanying Ehab will be her coach Mohamed Gouda.

Rowing

The Stade Nautique de Vaires-sur-Marne will host rowing from 30 August to 1 September in a sport that made its Paralympic debut in Beijing 2008.

For the first time in its history, Egypt qualified in the sport.

The Egyptian double sculls team, consisting of Ali Al-Zeini and Marwa Abdel-Aal in the PR3 mixed double sculls category, secured their place in the Games after winning the gold medal at the African Championships in October last year.

The team achieved a remarkable feat at the World Cup held in Switzerland from 24 to 26 May when they won the bronze medal in the PR3 mixed double sculls category with a time of 8:32.24, trailing behind Germany and Ukraine. The victory marked Egypt’s first medal in the World Cup, signifying significant progress on their journey to Paris.

The team is led by technical director Mohamed Taha and coach Sara Ashraf who closely oversaw the execution of the preparation program.

Taekwondo

The second combat sport to be integrated into the Games after judo, taekwondo made its debut at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo 2020. It is exclusively for athletes with upper limb impairments.  

Taekwondo will take place from 29 to 31 August at the Grand Palais, a historic monument built in 1897 and dedicated by the republic to the glory of French art. Egypt is competing in the Games with two taekwondo athletes (a female and a male): Salma Ali in the 52 kg weight category and Abdel-Rahman Abdel-Razek in 70 kg. The team is coached by Ismail Farag with Mohamed Magdi as an administrator.

Sitting volleyball

Egyptian sitting volleyball is scheduled from 29 August to 6 September.The event will be held at the North Paris Arena, located in the Villepinte Exhibition Centre in Seine-Saint-Denis.  Egypt is in Group A alongside France, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kazakhstan.

The sitting volleyball team earned a spot following their triumphant victory in the African Sitting Volleyball Cup held in Nigeria from 1 to 4 February 2024. The team dominated the final against Morocco, securing a decisive 3-0 win after achieving perfect scores in the preliminary rounds, defeating Morocco, Kenya and Nigeria, each by 3-0.

Tracing the history of the team in the Paralympic Games, their journey began in 1988 in Seoul where they finished ninth. In the Barcelona 1992 Games, they secured eighth place. The Sydney 2000 Games saw the team finishing in fourth place. Their efforts were rewarded with a bronze medal in Athens 2004. The team then placed fourth in Beijing 2008 and sixth in London 2012. In Rio 2016 the team once again claimed the bronze medal, although they came fifth in Tokyo 2020.

The current team comprises captain Hisham Salaheddin, Ashraf Zaghloul, Motawa Abdel-Baqi, Zakaria Al-Sayed, Abdel-Nabi Hassan, Ahmed Mohamed Fadl, Ahmed Mohamed Khamis, Al-Sayed Moussa, Ahmed Mohamed Hosni, Mohamed Hamdi, Hossam Mosaad, and Mohamed Abdullah. The technical staff consists of Mustafa Abdel-Haleem as administrator, Ayman Mohamed as head coach and Adel Mohamed Abdel-Moeti as coach.

Boccia

Boccia is one of the two sports in Paris 2024 without an Olympic counterpart. A total of 124 athletes will compete across 11 medal events at the South Paris Arena. Boccia will take place between 29 August and 5 September.

Boccia, a precision ball game, has been part of the Paralympic program since its debut in 1984, when the Games were held in New York and Stoke Mandeville in Great Britain. The inaugural competition featured 19 athletes from five countries. Originally developed for individuals with coordination impairments, boccia has since evolved to include athletes with various eligible impairments.

For the first time, Egypt will participate in boccia. The nation has two athletes, Hanaa Alam and Mahmoud Al-Nabawi, who secured their place by winning the gold medal in the doubles event at the 2023 African regional championship held in Cairo. The technical team consists of Mohamed Desouki as administrator, Mohamed Hassanein as coach and Aya Alaaeddin and Mustafa Mahmoud as assistants.

Goalball

The Arena Paris Sud, part of Paris Expo, will host goalball from 29 August to 5 September. Goalball is one of two sports, along with boccia, that has no Olympic equivalent. This team sport, specifically designed for visually impaired and blind athletes without categories of disability, was invented in 1946 for World War II veterans who had lost their sight. Thirty years later, goalball made its Paralympic debut exclusively for men, and in 1984, women also began participating in the tournament.

Egypt is in Group B, alongside China, Ukraine and Japan. Notably, they qualified for Paris after winning the African Championship held in December last year, marking their return to the Paralympics after a 32-year absence. Egypt previously won two bronze medals in goalball, one in Seoul 1988 and the other in Barcelona 1992. The head of the Egyptian Blind Federation, Ahmed Owein, used to be a player in the goalball team that secured the two bronzes and is returning, this time as the team’s administrator. He is accompanied by Mohamed Al-Sayed as head coach and Hossameddin Mustafa as physiotherapist.

The Egyptian squad has Ahmed Abdel-Fattah, Ahmed Khairy, Sayed Hassaan, Omar Abdel-Salam, Mohamed Hassan, the youngest athlete in the Egyptian delegation at 16, and Moaaz Youssef.

Overall management of the delegation consists of Hossameddin Mustafa as its head, Ahmed Adam as deputy head, Emad Ramadan as manager, Ehab Hassanein deputy manager, Ashraf Al-Ogueil administrative attaché, Mohamed Yehia media attaché, Shaaban Al-Khatib general administrator, Amal Mobadda as general supervisor for girls, Rami Abdel-Hamid as Paralympic attaché, Amr Al-Sadek general administrator, Nagi Ibrahim transportation officer, Aliaa Arafa and Adham Hassanein as secretary and IT, Attia Al-Qattan financial officer and Nada Owein housing officer.

In addition, a government delegation consisting of Amr Al-Haddad and Mahmoud Abdel-Azizi is accompanying the delegation to resolve any problems that may arise.

The delegation was received by Egyptian Ambassador to France Alaa Youssef who welcomed the team and held a reception at his home.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 29 August, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly