Weightlifting boom
Olympic medal propels thriving female sport in Egypt
to have made it big on the world weightlifting stage.
Years after competing, compatriot Abeer Abdelrahman is due to be handed Olympic medals retroactively, after podium winners were stripped of their medals due to testing positive for doping.
Abdelrahman had originally come fifth in both the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the 2012 Olympics in London.
In 2016, she was informed she had won a silver medal in London, and a few months later that she would be awarded a bronze medal for Beijing.
And last year, Shaimaa Khalaf, 26, won silver and bronze at the US World Championships in the +90-kilogram weight category.
‘Tolerance’ key to glory
But despite such major successes, weightlifting and other sports are not the government’s top priority – a spot reserved for soccer in Egypt.
“The state usually reacts at the moment of the accomplishment... and then as time passes we forget and focus on football,” said analyst Seif.
Eldib said that while state funding covers the national team’s needs, the lack of funding for gyms limits potential champions because many people do not have access to weightlifting training.
All of Samir’s medals since she began competing – more than 50, she says – are gold, except for two bronzes, including the Rio Olympic medal. Her secret? “It all depends on how much you want to achieve,” she said, echoing her coach Eldib, who believes girls “have higher levels of tolerance in training than boys.”