For hundreds of athletes, years of gruelling training, personal sacrifices and unbelievable hard work will culminate in Paris this summer at the Olympic Games. Starting July 26, the event will welcome a roster of ambitious Arab sportswomen and men with their eye on glory, not just for themselves but for their proud compatriots watching at home. Here are some of the names to note.
Safiya Al Sayegh is a name that went down in UAE history after she became the first female Emirati cyclist to qualify for the Olympic Games. After clinching her spot for Paris 2024, she posted an emotional message on Instagram, “Am I dreaming? I’m going to be an Olympian?!? And the very first Emirati female cyclist?!? Still can’t come to believe this, I think it will take some time, but all I know is that I’m over the clouds. Reaching this goal wasn’t easy, but the people beside me guided me into paving the journey up to this incredible milestone. And with all my strength I say, go for those dreams of yours, nothing is impossible.”
Riding high after winning the UAE National Cycling Championships in 2022 and 2023, Safiya heads to Paris filled with confidence and the backing of the nation and its sporting authorities.
“Before, there was not a clear pathway for female cyclists but, as the years have rolled by, we now have our first professional team here in the region,” she told Arab News. “When I started cycling, the Olympics was just a dream, but in the past couple of years, it became clearer that we now have the support to make that a reality.”
Aged just 22, Safiya has had to balance her training schedule with her studies at the American University of Dubai (AUD), from where she recently graduated with a degree in graphic design. “It is sometimes quite tough,” she admits. “Some days, I have to be in a classroom and then get home to change for a bike session. AUD has been really supportive, though.”
Along with the support of her university, Safiya has been inspired by Yousif Mirza, who competed at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. “The year he qualified in 2016 was the same year I started cycling. So it was a really good point to start dreaming of the Olympics myself as a cyclist,” she says of the man she calls her role model. “For the first time, someone in the UAE could believe that competing at the Olympics in cycling was possible. That opened my eyes.”
She admits winning a medal in the 158km Olympic road race this summer will be difficult, but Safiya is determined to make the UAE proud. “I really hope to represent my country in the best way I can,” she shares. “I want to be in the race and be competitive. That’s what I’m working towards.”
As the only female competitor in the judo category, Bashirat will also be carrying the flag of UAE. “She can fight for a medal,” General Secretary Nasser Al Tamimi confidently states when talking about the athlete’s potential.
Maha Al Shehhi is the female representative of the swimming team of UAE at the Olympics this summer. She is set to compete in the women’s 200-meter freestyle. The 18-year-old swimmer is going to compete against 391 other females representing over 180 countries.
Maryam Mohammed Al Farsi will represent the United Arab Emirates in the 100-metre running race. The track and field category is one of the most competitive categories in the Olympics Games.
The river Seine isn’t known for its barrel waves, so the world’s best surfers will instead congregate in Teahupo’o in Tahiti for four days of intense Olympic competition, where Moroccan star Ramzi Boukhiam is definitely one star to watch. Having carried the flag during the opening ceremony at Tokyo 2020, Ramzi is a darling of his home nation and the first Arab to qualify for the prestigious Championship Tour.
His silver medal at the World Surfing Games in Puerto Rico in March earned Ramzi his ticket to Paris, an achievement made all the more extraordinary considering he dislocated his shoulder just before the event. “I was all beat up at the end, everything was destroyed, but I got the silver medal and the Olympic qualification, so I was really, really happy,” he says. Looking ahead to the Olympics and the legendary Teahupo’o, Ramzi says, “It’s the most dangerous but the most perfect wave on the planet. As a surfer, it doesn’t get much better than that.”
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Ahmed Hafnaoui clinched a sensational gold medal in the 400m freestyle – an achievement Michael Phelps described as “unbelievable”. Then just 18, Ahmed snuck into the final as the slowest qualifier, but produced the swim of his life to take home the gold. However, whether Ahmed returns to defend his title in Paris this year remains in the balance.
“I’m currently suffering from an injury, and I don’t know whether or not I will participate,” the 21-year-old swimmer explains. One thing is for sure – Tunisians will be sending up their prayers to heal the swimmer who has been in fine form following two gold medals at the 2023 World Aquatics Championship.
After not making it to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the UAE equestrian team has put in the extra work and sealed their route to Paris by qualifying for this summer’s edition.
“It’s a dream come true for us, of course,” says Abdullah Mohd Al Marri, one of the team’s riders. “I think the path to our qualification and our success in Doha started nearly four years ago in Morocco, when we failed to make the Tokyo Olympics. We were so poor that day and we felt we had let people down. We were determined to not feel like that again.”
Abdullah will travel to France this summer with teammates Abdullah Humaid Al Muhairi, Omar Abdul Aziz Al Marzooqi and Mohammed Ghanem Al Hajri, hoping to capture the imagination of the UAE people and inspire a new generation of horse riders.
No matter how she performs this summer, Yomna Ayad’s place in history is assured, as she becomes her country’s first female boxing Olympian. In Paris, Egypt’s national champion will box in the 54kg featherweight category, having secured her ticket to the Olympics with a solid performance at the African Boxing Championship in Senegal last September.
“Hard work, dedication, and unwavering focus” – that’s the formula that trap shooting veteran Ray Bassil from Lebanon identified as the secret to her successful career. Set to compete at her fourth Olympics in Paris this summer – a fine achievement in itself – Ray won gold in Baku in Azerbaijan at the ISSF World Cup Championship in May.
