Will Egypt’s weightlifting champion Sarah Samir embrace her dream once more?

Egyptian weightlifting champion Sarah Samir is amongst those most hotly anticipated by Olympic fans of Egypt’s many players at this year’s Paris 2024 Olympics, running from July 26 until August 11.

The Egyptian delegation is participating with the largest number of players in its history in the Olympic Games with 149 main players and 16 reserve, for a total of 165 players across 24 sports.

The delegation is also the largest in the history of the Arab area and Africa.

Weightlifting marks the sport that has achieved the most medals for Egypt’s participation in the Olympic Games with 13 in total (Five gold, three silver and five bronze).

Biography of a champion

Samir was born on January 1, 1998 in the city of Ismailia, to a rural family in the village of al-Hawania.

Ever since early childhood she dreamt of becoming a world champion in weightlifting, and received encouragement from her family to continue the path of success.

The passion ran in her family, as Samir loved weightlifting because of her father who practiced the same sport, while her brother Mohamed was a weightlifting coach.

She would go with her older brother to his training sessions, where she discovered her unique talent in weightlifting.

Samir then joined the Military Institution School team after encouragement from her brother.

At the age of eleven, she participated in her first championship and achieved first place, quickly joining the Egyptian weightlifting team despite her young age.

In 2014 at the Nanjing Youth Olympics in China, Samir won the gold medal in the women’s 63 kg weight and made history as the the first Egyptian weightlifter to win an Olympic medal in the women’s competition.

At the age of 18, Samir sacrificed her high school exams in order to join the Egyptian weightlifting team camp in Uzbekistan, in preparation for participating in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics in Brazil.

She managed to win the bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics in weightlifting for the 68 kg weight class.

With this win, Samir became the youngest Egyptian to ever win an Olympic medal at the age of 18.

Samir’s medals:

– Three gold medals in the African Junior Championship in Tunisia in 2012.
– Three gold medals in the African Youth Championship in Tunisia in 2012.
– Three gold medals in the World Junior Championship in Peru in 2013.
– Three gold medals in the African Junior Championship qualifying for the Youth Olympics in Tunisia in 2014.
– Three gold medals in the African Youth Championship in Tunisia in 2014.
– A gold medal in the Youth Olympics Games (YOG) in Nanjing.
– Three gold medals in the World Youth Championship in Poland in 2015.
– Best Player Shield in the World Youth Championship.
– Fourth place in the World Weightlifting Championship in the US in 2015.
– Three gold medals in the African Games in Congo in 2015.
– Six gold medals in the Arab Afro-Asian Championship in Sharm el-Sheikh in 2016.
– Bronze medal in the Rio 2016 Olympics in Brazil.-Two silver and a bronze medal in the Mediterranean Games in Turkey in 2023.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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