With only one day to go before the opening ceremony of the 27th edition of the Summer Olympic Games, Ghada Abdel-Kader and Ahmed Morsy highlight the preparations, hopes and aspirations of Egypt's competing athletes Though the use of the bow and arrow goes back to the ancient Egyptians the Egyptians have never claimed an archery medal in the Olympics. Ibrahim Sabri won a gold medal in archery in the 2010 Youth Olympics. In London, Egypt's archery team consists of Ahmed Nemr in the men's individual competition and Nada Kamal in the women. "Our hopes are high in London despite the challenges we face," Ahmed Roushdi, executive manager of the Egyptian Archery Federation, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "The political circumstances in Egypt in addition to the players' exams were our barriers while training Nemr and Kamal. However, the training schedule was made more flexible to avoid such problems. Moreover, we tried to isolate them from the ongoing political conditions, but at last we decided to make use of the 25 January Revolution to motivate them instead." Nemr and Kamal qualified due to their superiority over their teammates Amira Ibrahim and Khairi Mansour in terms of the number of points that each collected during the last World Championship in the United States and camps held in total. "The federation refused to do away with the services of Ibrahim and Mansour and decided to keep them as substitutes for Nemr and Kamal in case there are injuries." Archery first appeared in the Olympics in 1900 and was included in the Commonwealth Games in 2010 for the first time since it made its debut in Brisbane in 1982. Hadia Mohamed Hosni, a pharmacy graduate from Ain Shams University, is the only player representing Egypt in the 2012 London Olympics. Hosni is making her second trip to the Olympics after participating in the women's singles at the 2008 Beijing Games. She was knocked out in the second round of competition. "Hosni is working on her Masters degree in medical biosciences at the University of Bath, about two hours away from London. "Though she's not training in Egypt for the badminton Olympic tournament, Hosni is already in England preparing for the tournament under the guidance of the university's coach," Ali Hassaballah, chairman of the Egyptian Badminton Federation, told Al-Ahram Weekly. In the London Olympics, badminton players will not be playing in elimination rounds like Beijing. Instead, it will be the same as the Youth Olympics in Singapore 2010. The first round starts with groups of four players. They will take the top player in each group to an elimination round of 16 players. "Two years ago, we started to concentrate on getting Hosni to London by letting her participate in most international tournaments to improve her international rank." Hosni's campaign to the 2012 Olympics started right after the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. She had to keep her ranking as high as possible so that she would not have to play in qualifications in all the tournaments. The world ranking in points for London 2012 started at the beginning of May 2011, and qualification closed on 29 April 2012. Hence, Hosni had to be either the top-ranked African to qualify as the continental representative or be included in the top 46 world players. Hosni, 23, was the top African by the end of April, taking the final place, at 46, in qualifying. At that time she was ranked 102 internationally. The badminton women's singles matches are scheduled from 28 July to 4 August. Five Egyptian pugilists qualified for London 2012: Rami El-Awadi in light flyweight (49kg), Hisham Abdel-Aaal in flyweight (52kg), Mohamed Elewa in lightweight (60kg), Islam Mohamed in light welterweight (64kg), and Mohamed Heikal in middleweight (75kg). All of them qualified during the African boxing Olympic qualification tournament in Casablanca, Morocco, held from 29 April - 5 May 2012. Egypt's first Olympic appearance in boxing was in the 1924 Games in Paris. Egypt competed with one boxer Michel Hadad who was eliminated in the first round of the lightweight class after losing to Italian Luigi Marfurt. In 1960 in Rome, Egyptian boxer Abdel-Moneim El-Guindi won a bronze medal in flyweight (-51kg). In 2004 in Athens, Ahmed Ismail won a bronze medal in light- heavyweight (81kg), Mohamed El-Sayed took bronze in heavyweight (91kg) and Mohamed Ali snatched a silver medal in the super heavyweight (over 91kg). In Athens Egypt also had Saleh Khoulef in light welterweight (64kg), Mohamed Heikal welterweight (69kg) and Ramadan Yasser in middleweight (75kg). They competed in the six heaviest weight classes, with no competitors in lightweight or below. Five of the Egyptian boxers won their first bouts on the team's way to a silver medal and two bronze. Egypt finished 7th overall in the medal standings for boxing. On expectations for an Olympic medal, Executive Director of the Egyptian Boxing Federation (EBF) Hassanein Mohamed said there are currently 28 different boxing weight classifications. "It is difficult to predict what's going to happen in the Olympics. The draw in boxing is the main aspect in the forecasting." Karim El-Zoghbi is only knight qualified for the Olympics Games London 2012. Throughout the Egyptian history in equestrian, Egypt didn't achieve any Olympic medals in the Olympics games despite taking part in several editions of the Games. In1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy, Egypt competed with United Arab Republic participated in the Olympic Grand Prix for Show Jumping and one of the conditions of this competition was that each State has the right to subscribe four riders and they calculated the result of the best three riders. The Egyptian team won the 4th place in show jumping competition for team. The team consisted of Gamal Ali riding horse Nefertiti, Mohammed Zaki riding Artose, Omar Ahmed El-Hadari riding Mabrouk, and Elwi Ghazi riding Bahga. Equestrian missed the editions from the 1964 Tokyo Games but came back in the 1988 summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea but then took part at the Barcelona '92, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 And Beijing 2008. By 2004 in Athens, it had become exceptionally difficult to qualify for the Olympics due to the level of the World Equestrian Games which had jumped to class standard. Still, Egypt participated again with Sakakini riding Casper in the individual jumping competition. Sakakini succeeded in his first qualification, getting 58th place among 77 riders with a time of 94 seconds. He was 55th in the second qualification with a time of 96 seconds. Sakakini was eliminated in the third round. In 2008 in Beijing, Egypt had Karim El-Zoghbi riding Aladdin in individual jumping. El-Zoghbi said at the time that his horse did not have the power to jump. It turned out Aladdin had acute bronchitis which prevented him and El-Zoghbi from continuing. Karim El-Zoghbi qualified for London 2012 in the jumping competition for individual riding his horse Dunoair Uleika at FEI (F��d��ration Equestre Internationale) World Equestrian Games 2010 in Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, USA which was held from 25 September to 1st October. In the results of day one in the individual jumping event, El-Zoghbi came in 9th place ahead of 140 riders. The result of day two in the first round team competition, El-Zoghbi finished in 16th place among the best 20 riders in the finals. In day three in the second round team competition, he came in 56th place. On day four, the last day in the competition, at night, "it wasn't our lucky day. This was the first time for Uleika to jump in the dark on sand. It wasn't trained on this before," El-Zoghbi said. El-Zoghbi's mare named Dunoair Uleika (11-year old Dutch mare). He added "In the competitions, the age of the horses are in between 11-15 years-old. I bought Uleika in October 2009. In the beginning, Uleika jumps obstacles heights 135-140 cm. normally, it takes four years of training for the horse in order to clear fences of 160cm and width 2m. We trained many times and achieved this only in 10 months. It happens too fast although it hasn't much experience and it was a big achievement." Executive Director of the Egyptian Equestrian Federation Tarek Khalifa said "El-Zoghbi is going to participate in London with two qualified horses Dunoair Uleika and gelding horse Wervel Wind. About El-Zoghbi's preparations for the Olympics, Khalifa added "Starting from January 2012 till Olympics, El-Zoghbi has been in permanent training camp in Holland. "Equestrian is different from other sports. When a rider is qualified to the Olympics, the place is awarded to the country not the rider who earned it. This does not mean that the same rider must compete in the same event in the Olympics. If the country wants to participate with another rider, the rider and horse should also, be qualified through participating in FEI qualifying championships", Khalifa explained. Khalifa told Al-Ahram Weekly about his expectation for Olympics 2012 "Qualification for the Olympics is a big achievement itself. We are hoping to achieve a medal but if he unable to achieve a medal this doesn't mean that he failed." Ten Egyptian fencers made it to London 2012: Ayman Fayez in individual ��p��e, Mannad Ibrahim in individual sabre event, and Alaaeddin El-Sayed, Tarek Mohamed, Anas Mustafa, and Sherif Farag (reserve player) are in individual and team foil events. Women fencers are Mona Abdel-Aziz in individual ��p��e, Salma Mohamed in individual sabre and Shaimaa El-Gammal, Iman El-Gammal, Iman Shaaban and Rana El-Hussani (reserve fencer) in individual and teams foil competitions. Teams qualified if they were ranked in the top 16 of the FIE (Federation International D'escrime) official ranking list. Egypt's men's foil team was ranked 8th and the women ranked 16th. In men's and women's individual foil events, they qualified through their individual ranking. El-Sayed qualified in individual ��p��e through his world ranking of 8th place, in addition to African championships held in Cairo. Ibrahim in individual sabre and Abdel-Aziz in individual ��p��e qualified at the African fencing Olympic qualification tournament in Casablanca, Morocco, held on 19 April 2012. Mohamed in individual sabre qualified at the fencing African championship held in Cairo in July 2011. Fayez in individual ��p��e and Mohamed in individual sabre made it through their FIE official rankings. Fayez ranked 25th and Mohamed 34th. Egyptian fencing has no record in Olympic Games history though it made its first appearance at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. President of the Egyptian Fencing Federation Ahmed Ismail told Al-Ahram Weekly "I expect in teams we will be among the top 12. In individuals, El-Sayed will be among the top eight." Along with history, Egypt have survived the group stages of the Olympic football tournament only four times, with their best result still their fourth place finishes at Amsterdam 1928 and Tokyo 1968. In the London Olympics, the Egyptian Olympic football team will be in Group C with Brazil, Belarus and New Zealand. "Our mission in the Olympics is not merely to perform well during the group stage. We are fully-motivated to qualify for the second round of the tournament," Hani Ramzi, Egypt Olympic coach, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "We did whatever we could to get ready for the challenge in London. Our players are good and they will be supported by Ahli's over-age trio players," Ramzi, who played in Germany's Bundesliga for the majority of his professional career and played against England in the 1990 World Cup, added. Ahli playmaker Mohamed Abu Treika, striker Emad Meteb and right back Ahmed Fathi are the three over-age players included by Ramzi to his squad in London. "It's an honour for me to represent Egypt in such an important competition. I cannot turn down any invitation to play for the national team," Abu Treika told FIFA.com the player. This will be Egypt's 13th football appearance at the Olympics. It only played in 10, however, after dropping out of the 1956 and 1980 editions for political reasons. Egypt's last Olympic appearance was in Barcelona 1992. Egypt qualified by finishing third at the inaugural African Under-23 Championship in Morocco last year. The national team has five players in London, all top ranked internationally. Eslam El-Shahabi, Hesham Mesbah, Hussein Hafiz, Ahmed Awad and Ramadan Darwish are the judokas. In Beijing, the only medal won by Egypt was in judo, a bronze by Mesbah. "Our players won 36 international medals, from gold to bronze during the last four years. This is how they qualified," Essam Rashad, head of the Egyptian Judo Federation, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "They did their best during the preparation period. They had a closed training camp in Japan and then Spain and Germany during the current year. While in Egypt, they trained in the Olympic Centre for national teams in Maadi. "They are all determined to win and we will pray for them because they deserve it," Rashad added. Snatching the country's only medal in 2008, Mesbah will be expected to replicate that achievement in London. Awad is competing in the -66 kg division, Hafiz in the -73 kg and Darwish in the -100 kg competition. World number two El-Shehabi is in the heavyweight +100 kg division. The athletes in this rugged sport succeeded in booking three seats to the 2012 London Games. Aya Medani and Yasser Hefini qualified for the Olympicsin London by winning gold medals in the African continental championships in Alexandria, Egypt held from 22-24 July 2011. Medani took first place for women with a total score 5,072 points -- 1,112 in fencing, 1,148 in swimming, 1,200 in riding and in the combined events (shooting and running) 1,612 points. Hefini won first place for men with an overall score of 5,784 points -- 106 in fencing, 1,260 in swimming, 1,016 in riding and combined events (shooting and running) 2,444 points. Managing director of the Egyptian Federation of the Modern Pentathlon (EFMP) Essam Hawala pointed to Amr El-Geziri, who qualified through the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM). El-Geziri qualified through his position in the UIPM world ranking list from the World Championships in 2011. On expectations for London 2012, Hawala told Al-Ahram Weekly, "We are hoping to win a medal but the riding event always changes the result. An Olympic medal is not too far from our athletes if the horse's condition is good." Egypt started competing in the modern pentathlon starting in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. It has put up athletes in the sport ever since but has never won a medal. One of the oldest sports, rowing was first chronicled as having started in Egypt around 1450 BC. Beginning with the 1900 Olympics in Paris, rowing started with only five events. Now both men and women compete in more than 14 events. Egypt will participate in three of the competitions represented by five players. Nour El-Dein Mohamed will contribute in the single-sculls competition, while Omar Sabahi and Mohamed Nofal will take part in the lightweight double-sculls for men. In addition, Sara Ashraf and Fatma Rashed are involved in the lightweight double-sculls for women. "Egypt qualified for the London Olympics after snatching gold medals in the three competitions in the African Championship held in Egypt in November 2011," Magdi Afifi, managing director of the Egyptian Rowing Federation, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "Since 1996, we have appeared regularly in the Olympic Games but without standing on the podiums," said Afifi. "We always hope for a medal and we do our best to get one. 2011 was not the best year to prepare owing to the revolution and the unpredictable times. We lost our focus last year, but we'll make Egypt proud of us, though maybe without medals." Seven Egyptians are going to London 2012. Six men and two women: Ahmed Zaher in trap, Azmi Mehelba and Mustafa Hamdi in the skeet, and shooter Mona El-Hawari in skeet. In the 10m air rifle men we have Amgad Hussein. Karim Wagih is in the 10m air pistol men and Nourhan Amer in the 10m air rifle women. Zaher, Mehelba, Hamdi and El-Hawari qualified to London at the 10th African Championships in shotgun events which took place in Rabat, Morocco securing three Olympic quota places out of five from the championship. Executive Director of the Egyptian Shooting Federation (ESF), Abdel-Hamid Ghaleb, said "We have a quota to participate in 50 m men rifle three positions but our performance did not allow us to compete in this competition so, we returned this quota to the International Shooting Federation and replaced it with a quota in skeet men. So now we have two shooters Mehelba and Hamdi in men's skeet", added Ghaleb. In the results in the men's trap qualification final Zaher won a gold medal with a score 119 targets. In men's skeet, Mehelba shot to gold with a score of 123 targets and Hamdi won silver, hitting 119 targets. In the women's skeet final, El-Hawari claimed gold with 63 targets. Hussein, Wagih and Amer also qualified for the Olympics in the second part of the 10th African Championship in 10m, 25m and 50m rifles and pistols events held in Cairo from 15-25 October 2011. Egypt won three Olympic quota places out of five from this championship. In 10m air rifle men and in 10m air pistol men Wagih claimed gold with a score of 572 targets and in 10m air rifle women Amer captured gold with a score of 392 targets. Hussein qualified by achieving the Minimum Qualification Scores (MQS) with a score of 592 targets. "It is a big responsibility to be put on the athlete's shoulders to represent his or her own country in the Olympics. There is a lot of tension so the results may vary a little bit. I expect to win two medals. One in men's skeet by shooter Mehelba and other in 10m air rifle women by Amer," added Ghaleb. The ESF was founded in 1950. It never won a medal in the Olympics. According to the the Synchronized swimming team head coach Lamia Mokhtar, Egypt will take part in this Olympics in two events; the teams and the duet which means that Egypt will not show up at the singles event. The team comprises of Dalia El-Gebali, Shaza Yehia, Reem Wael, Mai Mosaad, Yomna Amr, Samar Ossama, Mariam Yehia, Nour Al-Afendi and Aya Nasr and two officials Lamia Mokhtar head coach and Lina Sherif as assistant coach. The duet comprises Dalia El-Gebali and Shaza Yehia. "Egypt had qualified to the Olympics by being placed 8 out of 12 at the World Championships that was held in China in 2011. Actually it wasn't meant to be a qualifying event as it was scheduled to be held in South Africa, but the International Swimming Federation (FINA) decided to allow Egypt, who was placed eighth in the World Championship to represent the continent in the Olympics. It was a courtesy for Egypt considering all the incidents we have gone through in the past 18 months." She added. "Well, we have done all our best and trained very hard, but here in Egypt. We have been unable to travel abroad to participate at any international events as part of the preparations. We had the opportunity and our federation was willing to send us abroad but it coincided with the exams of the girls so we couldn't do it." "Well, I hope we could make a good result this time. We are fully prepared and hope for the best." Egypt's 2012 Olympic taekwondo team advanced to London with impressive credentials and promises of success. Egypt will be represented by four players: Tamer Salah, Hedaya Malak, Seham El-Sawalhi and Abdel-Rahman Osama. In Athens, Salah's bronze put Egypt on the map of this Korean martial art, which became an Olympic medal sport in 2000. Meanwhile, Salah and his three other taekwondo teammates are headed to London with their sights set on gold. "Our preparations for the London Olympics were unstable due to the country's unstable political conditions. Thus, we relied on holding closed training camps abroad," Hossam Morsi, head of the Egyptian Taekwondo Federation, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "We had three training camps in Turkey, Korea and China to get the team fully prepared." Salah, the team veteran, competes in the under-58 kilogram class. In addition to his 2004 Olympic bronze, he has a bronze medal from the 2007 World Taekwondo Championships. Salah is also a three-time Arab and African taekwondo champion for his weight class. On the other hand, his three teammates are first-time Olympians. They got to London after winning at the 2012 World University Taekwondo Championship held in Korea in May. Malak, 19, competes in the under-57 kg women's division. She won a gold medal at the recent University Taekwondo Championship. El-Sawalhi, 21, competes in the under 67-kg women's division and was a silver medallist in the May tournament. In addition, Osama, 23, competes in the under-80 kg men's division. He took bronze in the university championships. Seven athletes are going to London, an Egyptian record. "Though nine athletes qualified, only seven made it. "We have three hammer throwers and two discus throwers at B standard. According to the qualifying standards in athletics one athlete qualifies from each event. It is big achievement; it did not happen before," president of the Egyptian Athletics Federation (EAF), Seif-Allah Shahin said. Sprinter Amr Seoud qualified in the final of the men's 100 metres at the 10th All-Africa Games in 2011 in Maputo, Mozambique held from 3-18 September. Seoud finished first in 10.13 seconds. Seoud qualified after the first round heat in a time of 20.44 seconds in the men's 200 metres at the 13th IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federation) World Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea held from 24 August to 4 September 2011. Sprinter Hamada Mohamed qualified in the Dubai Open athletics meeting at the Dubai Police Officers' Stadium on 27 April 2012 with a gold medal in the men's 800 metres. Mohamed finished first in 1:46.03. The only woman participating is the young sprinter Noura Samir in the 800 metres. Samir qualified for the Olympics through the quota system. Discus thrower Omar El-Ghazali qualified with a throw of 64.89 metres at Egypt's national championship held in Cairo 2010. Long jumper Mohamed Deif-Allah qualified with a long jump of 8.19 metres at Egypt's Shield Cup for seniors held in Egypt from 5-7 May 2011. Hammer thrower Mustafa El-Gamal qualified in the All-Africa Games 2011 with a gold medal throw of 74.84 metres. El-Gammal qualified again with a throw of 75.02 metres at Egypt's national championship held in Cairo from 2-4 May 2012. Javelin thrower Ihab El-Sayed qualified with a throw of 79.97 metres at Egypt's Shield Cup for seniors held in Egypt on 2 May 2012. Shahin told Al-Ahram Weekly, "I can't really predict any medals but we will reach an average level. I predict Seoud will reach the quarter-final." Egypt's first athletics appearance in the Olympics was in 1920 in Antwerp with Abdel-Ali Maghoub in 5000 metres and Ahmed Khairi in 100m, 200m and 400 metres. Both were unable to advance past the initial round in any of their events. Only one athlete represented Egypt in 1924. Mohamed El-Sayed competed in the 1500m and 5,000 metre events. Eight weightlifters booked a ticket to London. The six men are Ahmed Saad in 62kg category, Mohamed Abdel-Baki in 69kg, Ibrahim Ramadan in 77kg, Ragab Abdel-Hai and Tarek Yehia in 85kg. The three women are Esmat Mansour in 69kg category, Abeer Abdel-Rahman in 75 kg and Nahla Ramadan in+75kg. Egypt qualified for the Olympics via the World Weightlifting Championships for seniors (men and women) in Paris held from 5-13 November 2011 and the World Weightlifting Championships for seniors (men and women) in Antalya, Turkey, held from 17-26 September 2010. Executive director of the Egyptian Weightlifting Federation (EWF) Fathi Zoreik called the qualifications "standard A. According to the qualification system, it gives Egypt five quotas for men and three for women depending on the total points in the two championships." Egypt has a long Olympics history in weightlifting. Khedr El-Touni was ranked number one in the list of history's 50 greatest weightlifters issued by the International Weightlifting Federation. Egyptian weightlifters started participating first in Antwerp with Ahmed Sami in the 75kg category, but Sami did not finish the competition. El-Sayed Nosseir won the gold medal in the light heavyweight class at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. He lifted 355.0 kg for a new world record, winning Egypt's first-ever Olympic gold medal. In the 1936 summer Olympics in Berlin, Egypt won two gold, one silver and two bronze medals. El-Touni in the middleweight (60- 67.5kg) category and Anwar Mesbah in lightweight (67.5-75kg) won two gold medals. Saleh Soliman took silver and Ibrahim Shams won bronze in the featherweight (-60kg) category. Ibrahim Wasif collected a bronze medal in the light-heavyweight (75-82.5 kg). In 1948 in London, Shams also won a gold medal and Attia Hamouda took silver in the lightweight (60- 67.5kg) category. Mahmoud Fayad in featherweight (56-60kg) won a gold medal. "It is very difficult to predict what is going to happen," Zoreik said. "In the Olympics expect the unexpected. We hope our weightlifters Ibrahim Ramadan and Nahla Ramadan get medals. Both are ranked five worldwide." More than at any other Olympics, 13 wrestlers qualified. The five freestyle wrestlers are Ibrahim Farag in 55kg, Hassan Medani in 60kg, Omar Abdo in 66kg, Saleh Emara 96kg and Ismail El-Desouki in 120kg. The only woman wrestler is Rabab Eid in the freestyle 55kg event. There are seven Greco-Roman wrestlers -- Mohamed Abu-Halima in 55kg, Abdel-Moneim Sayed in 60 kg, Ashraf El-Gharabli 66kg, Islam Tolba in 74 kg, Karam Gaber in 84kg, Mohamed Abdel-Fattah (known as Bogi) in 96 kg, and Abdel-Rahman El-Trabeli in 120kg. Gaber won a gold medal in Athens and is hoping for a repeat. "After winning the gold medal in 2004, Gaber stopped training for awhile," the public relations manager at the Egyptian Wrestling Federation (EWF) Sherif Ahmed said. "The only championship he competed in was the Mediterranean Games in Almeria, Spain 2005, where he won a gold medal. In Beijing 2008, he lost in the first match because he did not train enough. But he returned back in shape after snatching a gold medal in the Arab Games in Qatar 2011", added Ahmed. In London 2012, Gaber will compete in the 84kg division instead of 96kg. His muscle mass has apparently gone down to 84kg. All the wrestlers qualified for London 2012 during the Oceania and African continental qualification tournament in Marrakech, Morocco, held from 16 -18 March 2012 except for Bogi who was the only wrestler who qualified via the World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey held from 12-18 September 2011. He finished in fifth place. Ahmed stated that the competition in Turkey were more difficult than the African tournament. Egypt has several wrestling highlights in the Olympic Games. In 1920 in Antwerp, Egypt competed with a single wrestler Ahmed Rahmi in Greco-Roman lightweight and the freestyle middleweight but Rahmi lost his only match in each competition. In 1924 in Paris, Rahmi participated in the lightweight class and Ibrahim Mustafa in the light heavyweight. Mustafa finished in fourth place In 1928 in Amsterdam, Egypt competed with five Greco-Roman wrestlers: Ibrahim Kamel in bantamweight, Ali Kamel in featherweight, Rahmi and Ibrahim Mustafa in light-heavyweight and Ibrahim Subah in heavy weight. Mustafa snatched a gold medal. In 1948 in London, Egypt competed with 14 Greco-Roman wrestlers. Mahmoud Ali won a silver medal in the bantamweight and Ibrahim Orabi took a bronze in the light-heavyweight. In 1952 in Helsinki, Egypt competed with 11 Greco-Roman wrestlers and one wrestler in the freestyle flyweight class. Abdel-Aaal Rashed won bronze medal in the featherweight class. In 1960 in Rome, Egypt competed with eight Greco-Roman wrestlers. Only Eid Osman won, a silver medal in the flyweight (-52kg) division. In in Athens, Egypt competed with three Greco-Roman wrestlers. Gaber won a gold medal in the men's Greco-Roman 96kg category. President of the EWF Hassan El-Hadad gave Al-Ahram Weekly his predictions for London. "We have a big chance to achieve Olympic medals. In Greco-Roman wrestling I predict that Gaber, Bogi, El-Gharabli and Abdel-Moneim will get two medals. In freestyle wrestling, if wrestlers Farag, Medani and Emara are in good draws I expect they will compete for an Olympic medal."
