Over 400 Arab Athletes Eye Varied Medals At Paris Olympics

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) News report
ALGIERS, July 27 (KUNA) -- Some 429 Arab athletes are partaking in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, which kick-started on Friday, vying to add more medals to their countries.
During their previous Olympic competitions over 100 years, Arab athletes snatched 129 varied medals.
They had won 32 gold, 33 silver and 64 bronze, and took in the 1912 Stockholm Olympic games for the first time through Egypt's athlete Ahmad Hasaneen.
Egypt came first in terms of medals at these games, collecting 38: Eight gold, 11 silver and 19 bronze followed by Morocco with seven gold, five silver and 12 bronze.
Algeria came after Morocco, obtaining five gold, four silver and eight bronze, followed by Tunisia which won five gold, three silver and seven bronze.
Qatar, Bahrain, Syria, Jordan and the UAE won the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth positions respectively.
Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Sudan, Kuwait, Iraq and Djibouti were in the 10th, 11th, 12,th, 13th, 14th and 15th positions respectively.
Athletes of the remaining Arab countries are searching for the first medal in Olympic Games.
Egypt was the first Arab country that snatched Olympic medals in 1928 in Amsterdam when Sayed Nusair won the gold of Weightlifting, and his compatriots Ibrahim Moustafa had the gold at Men's Greco-Roman light heavyweight wrestling, while Farid Simaika obtained the diving silver medal at Men's 10 m platform and the diving bronze at Men's 3 m springboard.
Arab countries did not partake in the 1932 games, but Egypt took part in Berlin games in 1936.
Due to World War II, the 1940 and 1944 games were suspended, and the competition was organized again in the 1948 London games when Iraq, Syria and Lebanon joined the tourney. Lebanon took part in the Olympics for the first in 1952 Helsinki Summer Olympics, winning three medals: One silver and two bronze.
The 1960 Rome games featured Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia for the first time, in addition to Lebanon, Iraq and the United Arab Republic - Egypt and Syria.
Algeria was among the participating teams for the first time at the 1964 Tokyo games, in addition to 10 Arab countries, including Kuwait.
Only three Arab countries - Kuwait, Lebanon and Saudi Arabs - took part in 1976 Montreal games, gaining no medals.
Seven Arab athletes participated in the 1980 Moscow games and had only a bronze, while 19 Arab countries joined Los Angeles games in 1984, obtaining two gold, two silver and two bronze medals through Egypt, Algeria and Morocco.
The 1988 Seoul Olympics featured 21 Arab countries. In the 1992 Barcelona competitions, Algeria's runner Hassiba Boulmerka won the first gold medal for her country in 1500-m race.
The 1996 Atlantic games featured 22 Arab countries, and Palestine and Comoros were among the participating teams for the first time. In 2000 Sydney games, Arabs had 14 medals, 10 in the 2004 Athens competitions, seven in Beijing in 2008 and 12 in the 2012 London Olympic games.
In Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games, Arabs won two gold, four silver and eight bronze accolades, while they snatched 18 - five gold, four silver and nine bronze - in Tokyo in 2020. (end)
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