7 Egyptian medals?! – Hassan Moustakawi

** What the Egyptian delegation really had within reach at the Paris Olympics was close to seven medals. Yes, but it was three: gold in the pentathlon for the legendary Ahmed El Gendi, silver in weightlifting for heroine Sarah Samir and bronze in weapons for champion Mohamed El Sayed. The football and handball teams were just minutes and seconds away from getting two medals. Add to that the weapons medal that Ziad El-Sisi is expected to win, almost guaranteed, and at least one more in wrestling. In any case, seven medals are not enough for a sporting powerhouse like Egypt, with a population approaching 110 million. But why is it not enough?

** The base of practitioners at championship level, whether continental, global or Olympic, is very limited because practicing sports is expensive and seems like a luxury. I am not talking here about universal sports, game classes, running and walking, which are accessible to all classes and social classes. I repeat that even the practice plants for championships are now mainly made by Egyptian families. Go to the clubs and see fathers and mothers taking turns for public and private sports classes, just as they take turns for public and private education classes. Egyptian families pay more than they can for their children to practice sports, which is in stark contrast to what they pay for schools and universities at different levels. These are facts and I can put them in amazing details.

** Egypt does not have millions of football players of the highest level. Forget street football, futsal, academies and training methods that rely on axioms, without tactical and planned training to develop skills and talents from a young age, forget the limitations of foreign professionalism, we will not play at the international level. The list of 30 professional players per team in Europe, the reasons are related to physical fitness, lifestyle and training.

** There are less than 20 million tennis players registered with the Egyptian Tennis Association, and the same is true for squash. And in all games. Let’s face it: how many modern pentathlon athletes are close to the circle of Ahmed El-Ghendi, how many hundreds of athletes in the Arab Republic of Egypt are close to the circle of Ziad El-Sisi. How many practitioners in the Republic are close to the circle of Farida Osman, Marwan Kamash and other swimming champions who originally trained in the United States? I can ask the same question about 30 other sports, and those who practice them can get close to the circle of champions and the international, world and Olympic level.

** Professionalization of the game is very important so that it is compatible with the Egyptian genes. But I start with American control:

** ** The United States won 35 medals in this Olympics and regained the track and field championship with 34 medals, including 28 medals in swimming, of which the United States won a total of 8 gold medals. So far, Arab countries have won a total of 3,111 medals in the history of the Olympics, while the number of medals of Arab countries is 148. To clarify the training issue, Thea Lafon, who comes from the Caribbean, 750 kilometers away, Dominica, with a population of 71,000, won the gold medal in the triple jump. She is a student at the University of Maryland in the United States. Julian Alfred, who comes from the island of Saint Lucia, won the gold medal in the 100-meter run. She is a student at the University of Texas. Saint Lucia is an island with an area of ​​​​617 square kilometers and a population of 180,000. American universities and schools are factories of world champions and Olympic champions.

** Jamaica, the island of speed, lost its dominance in Paris. Jamaica is a specialist in speed events, having won 10 of the 12 medals in the women’s 100m in the four Olympics before Paris. It also won four of the last five 200m races in Tokyo. Jamaica won 19 medals in Tokyo.

** The Chinese team performed well in 24 events, winning medals, the most important of which was table tennis, winning gold medals in 5 events, in addition to 11 medals in diving, including 8 gold medals. Weightlifting 5 gold medals. And archery 5 gold medals. Another is China, the largest country, with a huge base of practitioners.

** Australia finished fourth in the Paris swimming competition, winning 18 medals, including seven golds.

** Kenya was the first African country to make it to the Paris medal table, ranking 17th, specializing in running events (800m, 5000m, 10000m and 3 obstacle races), winning a total of 11 medals, 4 of which were gold. Nothing but running. There is also some suggestion that if we want to train running champions in the future, should we take them to Nairobi for long-term training at an altitude of 5,000 feet? !

** The real legendary Arab medals in Paris are: Ahmed El Gendy’s legendary gold, breaking the Olympic record of 1516 points and the world record of 1555 points. The gold medals won by Algerian Kaylia Nammour at different heights. Gold and Egyptian Sarah Samir won silver and Qatari Moataz Barshim won bronze. My selection depends on the level at which these Arab champions appeared, and the environment in which they competed for medals. I added Mutaz Barshim because

The first athlete in the history of high jump to win 4 Olympic medals in this sport. Moataz Barshim previously won bronze at the 2012 London Olympics, silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics and gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.