Seven Years of Sports Glory

Since he took office in 2014, President Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi has been an enthusiastic supporter of Egyptian sports.

Under the leadership of President El-Sisi, sports have accomplished remarkable and astounding achievements on all levels; national, regional, and international. The President is a keen follower of Egyptian sports and athletes. He follows them closely, praises their wins and achievements, and encourages their defeats and losses.

Throughout those seven years, he has been a true partner in the success of all Egyptian athletes. He appreciates the effort of the champions and honors them by providing all the care and support needed. Accordingly, he had supported the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Egyptian Olympic Committee, and sports federations to amend the law of sports. In 2017, a new law was issued which gave the general assemblies of sports clubs and sports federation more freedom in setting their own regulations and statutes.

In his era, Egypt has been hosting several regional, continental, and world sports events. As head of state, El-Sisi would instruct the government to guarantee to the World Federations Egypt’s full readiness to host any major sports event on Egyptian soil. Even, with the challenges of the Covid-19, Egypt was the only country that dared to host several World Championships in different sports: handball, shooting, fencing, gymnastics, and modern pentathlon. All those events served as Olympic qualifiers to the upcoming Olympic Games which is scheduled to be held soon. If Egypt had not stepped in to organize such events, it would have been a dilemma for the world of sports.

The President has become ‘The Maker of Sports Achievements’. In seven years, Egyptian sports have been at their peak as they clinched and snatched many outstanding and notable achievements on all levels. Egypt took part in two Youth Olympic Games in 2014 and 2018 and one Olympic Games in 2016. Overall, Egypt has collected massive gold, silver, and bronze medals. 

In teams’ sports, Egyptian handballhas regained its golden age—like when they used to lead the sport among the top ten teams in the world. In 2019, the U18 handball team won the World Youth Handball Championship, while the U20 claimed third place in the World Juniors Handball Championship. In 2020, the national team won the African Championship. And, earlier this year, the men’s handball team claimed 7thplace at the World Championship, which was held in Cairo, after displaying breath-taking performances as they challenged the world’s top teams including the eventual world champion, Denmark. Handball World Championship was the first-ever world event to be held amid the coronavirus outbreak and the first event to apply the ‘Bubble Concept’. It was a huge success that brought back huge notes of appraisal from the world of sports.

After a 28-year-absence from the footballWorld Cup, the Pharaohs managed to qualify for the World Cup in Russia 2018. In 2019, the Olympic U23 team booked a seat at the football competition of the Tokyo Olympic Games, after winning the African qualifying tournament which was held in Cairo. Also, in 2019, Egypt hosted a spectacular Africa Cup of Nations with the participation of 24 teams for the first time in the history of Africa’s most prestigious football competition, the 2ndbiggest continental football event after the Euro Cup and the third greatest world event after the World Cup and Euro Cup.

For individual sports, three medals were won in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, when both Mohamed Ihab and Sara Samir each won a bronze medal in weightlifting, while Hedaya Malak claimed another bronze in Taekwondo.

Squash has always been a successful sport, but in El-Sisi’s era, they have had it all. In 2014, Egyptians have become the leaders of the sport. The Egyptian athletes have reigned the world’s top-ranking lists for both men and women, and they still continue to do so. At least four to six athletes had made it to the top ten in both lists every month. Ramy Ashour, Karim Abdel-Gawad, Mohamed El-Shorbagy, Aly Farag and Tarek Moemen have all been world champions from 2014 till 2020.

And for the first time ever in Egyptian sports history, the juniors fencing team won the gold medal at the World Championship that has been held in Cairo this year. The team of Mazen El-Araby, Eyad Maarouf, Adham Moetaz and Zeyad Nofal are now dubbed the future team of Egypt. In the individual event, Mohamed Yassin claimed the silver medal, while El-Sayed Ali claimed the bronze.

Egypt has also delivered some spectacular world championships as the U18 Basketball World Cup in 2017, the U23 Volleyball Youth Championship, as well as the U20 World Championship, in addition to the World Shooting and Fencing Cups. All those editions have put Egypt amongst the top sports organizing nations in the world.

Continental achievements

During the mandate of President El-Sisi, the Egyptian athletes dominated two editions of the All-Africa Games which were held in Congo in 2015 and in Morocco in 2019. The Egyptians also excelled at the Mediterranean Games in 2018 in Tarragona, Spain.

Infrastructure

The past seven years have also seen a massive development in Egypt’s sports infrastructure. New stadiums, indoor complexes, and sports cities have been constructed all over the country— not only in the big cities. It was sort of an entire sports revolution in the infrastructure. In addition to the newly-built sports facilities, the already existing sports venues— whether open or indoor complexes— were all renovated and upgraded, in order to be ready to host any international major events.

The government, represented in the Ministry of Youth and Sports, has also been keen to refurbish and upgrade all other infrastructure in the sports facilities, including transportation lines, to easily reach the sports facilities located on the outskirts or suburbs, in addition to upgrading electricity, grounds and telecommunications services. It has been a complete renovation of all existing and old facilities.

The greatest achievement of all was the establishment of a new sports city at the New Administrative City, in New Cairo. This huge Sports City brings together all sports venues in one place. The 7,500 - handball indoor complex successfully hosted two groups of the World Handball Championship which was held in January. With the establishment of the New Sports City, Egypt can and intends to apply for a bid to host the Olympic Games one day. 

Women and sports

The President was also keen to show support to sportswomen who have made big names of themselves for their remarkable achievements worldwide in many sports as squash, karate, taekwondo, wrestling, modern pentathlon, badminton, and swimming. Two sportswomen have also made it to the Egyptian parliament: Aya Medany, champion in Modern Pentathlete, and Hadia Hosny, champion in Badminton. They both serve in this year’s house of representatives, as well as former deputies’ swimmer, Ranya Elwany, and Taekwondo champion, Caroline Maher.