Global InformationEgypt at the 2012 Summer Olympics information
| Egypt at the 2012 Summer Olympics | |
|---|---|
 | |
| IOC code | EGY |
| NOC | Egyptian Olympic Committee |
| Website | www |
| in London | |
| Competitors | 110 in 20 sports |
| Flag bearers | Hesham Mesbah (opening)[1] Tamer Bayoumi (closing)[2] |
| Medals Ranked 56th |
|
| Summer Olympics appearances (overview) | |
| |
| Other related appearances | |
| 1906 Intercalated Games
––––  United Arab Republic (1960, 1964) | |
Egypt competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, from 27 July to 12 August 2012, sending one of its largest delegations ever. A total of 110 Egyptian athletes participated in 83 events across 20 sports, with more women taking part than ever before. The nation's flagbearer in the opening ceremonies was Hesham Mesbah, a judoka who was Egypt's only medalist at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Egypt won two medals during the course of the Games: Alaaeldin Abouelkassem earned silver in the men's foil, becoming the first competitor from an African nation to win a fencing medal, while Karam Gaber captured silver in the men's 84 kg Greco-Roman wrestling event. Two Egyptian weightlifters were awarded medals retroactively, after higher-ranked competitors were disqualified for doping: Abeer Abdelrahman took silver in the women's 75 kg event, while Tarek Yehia, received bronze in the men's 85 kg event. Among other achievements, Mostafa Mansour was the nation's first competitor in sprint canoeing while fencer Shaimaa El-Gammal became the first Egyptian female to appear in four editions of the Olympics.
Prior to 2012, Egypt had sent athletes to nineteen editions of the Summer Olympic Games, the 1906 Intercalated Games, equestrian at the 1956 Summer Olympics, and the 1984 Winter Olympics. Before the Games began, the Egyptian Olympic Committee distributed counterfeit Nike gear to its athletes, due to its financial troubles following the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. Nike, however, ended up donating legitimate equipment to the Egyptians. Tamer Bayoumi, a 2004 Olympic bronze medalist and the nation's most successful taekwondo practitioner at the 2012 Games, was chosen to carry Egypt's flag at the closing ceremony.
Aside from the team sport of football, which had 16 participants, fencing and wrestling were the sports in which Egypt had the most participants, sending 12 representatives to each. Of them, wrestling was almost exclusively male with only one female, Rabab Eid, taking part. The sport with the most Egyptian female participation was synchronized swimming, an all-woman tournament at the Olympics, with eight, while the nation sent six women to fencing, the highest number for a mixed sport. Among tournaments with the potential for both men and women to take part, Egypt qualified females, but not males, for badminton, and males, but not females, for track and field athletics, boxing, canoeing, equestrian, football, judo, and sailing.
- ^ Gjerde, Arild; Jeroen Heijmans; Bill Mallon; Hilary Evans (September 2013). "Egypt". Olympics. Sports Reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
- ^ "London 2012 Closing Ceremony – Flag Bearers" (PDF). International Olympic Committee. 2012. Retrieved 17 March 2014.