The 2024 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad and branded as Paris 2024, is scheduled to take place from 26 July to 11 August in France with some competitions starting on 24 July.

President of the Egyptian National Olympic Committee (ENOC) Yasser Idris confirmed the names of the participating delegation.

The Egyptian delegation for the Games is the biggest in Egypt’s history with 148 male and female players in addition to 16 substitutes, making it 164 athletes who will be competing in 22 sports. The Pharaohs delegation is the biggest in Africa and the Arab world.

Idris announced that the duo pentathlete Ahmed Al-Gendi, silver medallist at the 2020 Tokyo Games and weightlifter Sara Samir, bronze medallist at the Rio 2016 Games, will lead the Egyptian delegation as flag bearers in the opening ceremony. Previously, only one flag bearer led the delegation, however, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided that this edition would have two standard bearers, a male and a female. “We selected Al-Gendi and Samir because both have won Olympic medals in the last two editions of the Olympic Games,” Idris said.

In Paris, the Egyptians will compete in athletics (6), football (22), handball (16), volleyball (13), beach volleyball (2), water sports (15); swimming (2), diving (4) and artistic swimming (9), sailing (2), rowing (3), boxing (3), taekwondo (3), judo (2), wrestling (11), weightlifting, tennis (1), table tennis (8), modern pentathlon (4), fencing (21), gymnastics (9), shooting (11), archery (2), cycling (2), equestrian (1), and canoe and kayak (1).

One athlete who is not going to Paris is cyclist Shahd Said after the ENOC upheld a one-year suspension imposed by the National Cycling Federation (NCF). Said, 19, was suspended in April following an on-track incident with teammate Janna Eleiwa during the Egyptian Cycling Republic Championship. Eleiwa sustained several injuries in a fall after Said allegedly rammed into her intentionally during a local race.

Still, despite her one-year suspension and a LE5,000 fine, Said was initially named among the cycling team travelling to the Games. The NCF said at the time that Said’s participation in the Olympics was “in favour of Egypt”, noting that the organisation could not remove her because it was too late to replace her.

Said also said repeatedly that it was an accident, especially considering that it was a non-Olympic qualifying event.

However, the announcement that she was still on the team and a picture of Said with the delegation wearing the official outfit of the Games and which was posted on Facebook whipped up Egyptians on social media into a frenzy and along with the mainstream media, demands that she be cut from the team reached a crescendo.

The public’s outrage might have forced the NEOC into its about-face. It subsequently reviewed the case, examining reports from the cycling federation and its referees’ committee. They concluded that Said violated sporting regulations and ethics. The NEOC noted that the one-year suspension, the maximum allowed under International Cycling Union (UCI) rules, effectively barred Said from competing in Paris.

“Shahd Said is not eligible to participate in any international competition... due to her one-year suspension until 26 April 2025,” the NEOC statement said.

Following the statement, Said announced her retirement from the sport in a television programme.

The NEOC urged the Egyptian media and public to support the remaining members of the Olympic team competing in Paris.

Paris 2024 will be Egypt’s 23rd participation in the Olympic Games. The Egyptians have competed in 22 of the past 32 editions with a world ranking of 53 according to the medals won: 38 — eight gold, 11 silver, and 19 bronze medals.

Weightlifting leads Egypt’s Olympic table with 14 medals followed by wrestling with eight medals, boxing four, taekwondo four, judo two, diving two, karate two, and fencing and modern pentathlon one apiece.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 18 July, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly