In diving, Egypt has been the pioneer of Africa and the Middle East. The Amsterdam Olympics of 1928 saw the great Farid Simaika bring home a silver and bronze medal. In the Grand Prix finals in Mexico in 1967, Gezira champ Wagih Aboul-Soud grabbed sixth place. Samir Mamoun also won the Military World Championship in Singapore in 1969. And Ahmed Hassan was at one time ranked sixth in the world. Since those heydays, Egypt's divers have not made a big splash in such big occasions like the Olympics, the World Champions or the Grand Prix. Osama Khallaf, 35, Gezira Club diving head coach, gave a brief on the current situation of the sport in Egypt along with his expectations for the near future regarding youth and senior players who will compete internationally at the highest levels. “Here in Gezira Club we have three top class divers who compete in various age brackets. They just need attention. Despite the big effort of the swimming federation's president Yasser Idriss and team manager Zakaria Al-Daw, who saw to it that the national team recently participated in four major international championships, we need a lot of support for the players as well as financial assistance,” Khalaf added. Gezira Club is currently servicing the national team with Mohamed Sherif Noaman, under 18, Habiba Ashraf Shoeib, and Ammar Al-Ramli. The three talents are grabbing each and every domestic championship that comes their way. However, they all share the same feeling of frustration which will likely push them out of the sport sooner or later. “I was offered LE300 from the federation for only two months, that's all,” said Al-Ramli. “The players just need to feel that their hard work is appreciated. They don't get any media spotlight whatsoever. The two major rewards given to any athlete — media attention and financial gain — just aren't there in Egyptian diving.” “I can't imagine my life without me diving. It even helps me organise my day between studying and training,” said Habiba. “We sacrifice our whole life for Noaman to succeed in diving and raise the Egyptian flag up high,” said Amani Al-Naggar, Noaman's mother. As for the water polo team at Gezira, it's the national squad's backbone. Ahmed Adel , 27, the team's assistant coach, explains why. “The team won the national league five times in the past 10 years. We routinely feed the national team with at least seven players at any given time, like Hassan Al-Kordi, Ali Mohamed Ali, Ahmed Hazem, Mustafa Hassan and Ahmed Al-Sherbini,” Adel said. Seven Gezira players make up more than half the national water polo team. They play around 25 matches a season, but only six games can be considered high calibre. The rest shows the big difference among the teams in Egypt due to the lack of resources in most teams. Adel also shed light on how water polo athletes get started at a young age in Egypt, growing up enjoying the sport to an extent that they start loving it. However, they suddenly start realising that the sport in Egypt is neglected and thus it makes it difficult to reach something special like the Olympics. Adding to this is the modest financial feedback the players get, exactly the problem the diving team is facing. All this is reflected in the national team results. Egyptian water polo got seventh place in the 1948 Olympics, 15th in 1968, and 12th place in 2004 in Athens. They finished 10th in the FINA World League in 2008. In the process of trying to salvage the sport, Adel nailed the problem, according to his professional view. He said it was the lack of a system by officials and organisers who run the sport in Egypt. This, he said, had made many players lose hope in the sport and leave it, leaving teams with big gaps they must constantly fill. Adel added that the team, for example, didn't know the actual dates for upcoming league matches or tournaments and training camps. Since the swimming federation is not keen on letting the water polo senior national team participate in any international championships, the youth world championship is the only chance for players to play at the international level. All these factors have affected Egyptian water polo, killing any hope of any decent future. Adel suggests that the swimming federation should provide an organised system for water polo, targeting the Olympics and the world champion in all age brackets and concentrating on how to provide the players with regular competition from a young age, as well as guaranteeing regular training camps for the national teams before heading to any international forum. The problem of water sports in Egypt, as shown by the Gezira Club experience in diving and water polo, is the lack of support from the Egyptian Swimming Federation. Such sports are in desperate need of technical, financial, and moral support in order for them to achieve their goals. They have all what it takes regarding talent and determination, however, they will never do it all by themselves. And if they did it once, don't expect them to do it again. The writer is a freelance journalist.
