The Most Famous
ATHLETES from Egypt
This page contains a list of the greatest Egyptian Athletes. The pantheon dataset contains 3,059 Athletes, 7 of which were born in Egypt. This makes Egypt the birth place of the 63rd most number of Athletes behind Uganda and Kyrgyzstan.
Top 7
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Egyptian Athletes of all time. This list of famous Egyptian Athletes is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Mahmoud Fayad (1925 - 2002)
With an HPI of 44.68, Mahmoud Fayad is the most famous Egyptian Athlete. Her biography has been translated into 17 different languages on wikipedia.
Mahmoud Fayad (Persian: محمود فیاض; March 9, 1925 – December 18, 2002) was a Featherweight (-60 kg) in the weightlifting Egyptian team at the Summer Olympics of 1948 in London. He scored a Gold medal for Egypt after lifting a record of 332.5 kg.
2. Ibrahim Shams (1917 - 2001)
With an HPI of 44.38, Ibrahim Shams is the 2nd most famous Egyptian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Ibrahim Hassanien Shams (January 16, 1917 – January 16, 2001) was an Egyptian weightlifter who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics and in the 1948 Summer Olympics. He was born in Alexandria. In 1936 he won the bronze medal in the featherweight class. Due to the start of World War II and cancellation of the Olympics in both 1940 and 1944, he was forced to wait until the 1948 Summer Olympics to prove himself again. He received a gold medal by lifting a total of 360 kg in the lightweight event. He was the second Egyptian to earn two medals, after Farid Simaika, who earned them in diving at the 1928 Summer Olympics. Shams was the first to win two medals at two different Olympic tournaments.
3. Khadr El-Touni (1915 - 1956)
With an HPI of 44.35, Khadr El-Touni is the 3rd most famous Egyptian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Khedr Sayed El Touny (Arabic: خضر التوني; December 15, 1916 – September 22, 1956) was an Egyptian weightlifter. He was ranked number one on the list of history's 50 greatest weightlifters issued by the International Weightlifting Federation, until Turkey's Naim Süleymanoğlu surpassed the Egyptian to top the list at the 1996 Games in Atlanta.
4. Tamer Bayoumi (1982 - )
With an HPI of 26.00, Tamer Bayoumi is the 4th most famous Egyptian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Tamer Salah Ali Abdu Bayoumi (Arabic:تامر بيومى) (born 12 April 1982) is an Egyptian taekwondo athlete who won a bronze medal in the 58 kg weight class at the 2004 Summer Olympics after defeating Juan Antonio Ramos of Spain. He also won a bronze at the 2007 World Championships.
5. Ihab Abdelrahman (1989 - )
With an HPI of 21.45, Ihab Abdelrahman is the 5th most famous Egyptian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Ihab El Sayed Abdelrahman (born 1 May 1989) is an Egyptian track and field athlete who competes in the javelin throw. His personal best of 89.21 m is the Egyptian record. El Sayed splits his time between Kuortane, Finland, where his coach Petteri Piironen is based, and Cairo, where he is a student. In 2016, he tested positive for a banned substance, and was banned from the 2016 Olympics. He competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
6. Fares El-Bakh (1998 - )
With an HPI of 19.65, Fares El-Bakh is the 6th most famous Egyptian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.
Fares Ibrahim Saed Hassouna El-Bakh (Arabic: فارس ابراهيم سعد حسونة الباخ, born 4 June 1998), commonly known as Meso Hassouna, is a Qatari weightlifter of egyptian origin. He is an Olympic Champion, World Champion and two time Junior World Champion competing in the 85 kg, and 94 kg categories until 2018 and 96 kg and 102 kg starting in 2018 after the International Weightlifting Federation reorganized the categories. He holds the junior world record in the clean & jerk (225 kg) and total (397 kg) in the 96 kg division. His father, Ibrahim Hassouna, represented Egypt at three consecutive Olympics from 1984 to 1992.
7. Sara Ahmed (1998 - )
With an HPI of 19.40, Sara Ahmed is the 7th most famous Egyptian Athlete. Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Sara Samir Elsayed Mohamed Ahmed (Arabic: سارة سمير السيد محمد أحمد; born 1 January 1998) is an Egyptian weightlifter who won a bronze medal in the women's 69 kg event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She won the gold medal in the women's 76 kg event at the 2022 World Weightlifting Championships held in Bogotá, Colombia. Originally from the Ismailia Governorate, Ahmed was encouraged to take part in weightlifting by her family and was competing internationally by 2012. At the senior level, she has earned gold medals at the Mediterranean and African Games, as well as the Arab Championships. In Rio de Janeiro, she became the first Arab woman to receive an Olympic weightlifting medal and the first Egyptian woman to receive an Olympic medal on the podium in any discipline.
Pantheon has 7 people classified as athletes born between 1915 and 1998. Of these 7, 4 (57.14%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living athletes include Tamer Bayoumi, Ihab Abdelrahman, and Fares El-Bakh. The most famous deceased athletes include Mahmoud Fayad, Ibrahim Shams, and Khadr El-Touni. As of April 2022, 5 new athletes have been added to Pantheon including Ibrahim Shams, Khadr El-Touni, and Tamer Bayoumi.
Living Athletes
Go to all Rankings
Tamer Bayoumi
1982 - Present
HPI: 26.00
Ihab Abdelrahman
1989 - Present
HPI: 21.45
Fares El-Bakh
1998 - Present
HPI: 19.65
Sara Ahmed
1998 - Present
HPI: 19.40
Deceased Athletes
Go to all RankingsMahmoud Fayad
1925 - 2002
HPI: 44.68
Ibrahim Shams
1917 - 2001
HPI: 44.38
Khadr El-Touni
1915 - 1956
HPI: 44.35
Newly Added Athletes (2022)
Go to all RankingsIbrahim Shams
1917 - 2001
HPI: 44.38
Khadr El-Touni
1915 - 1956
HPI: 44.35
Tamer Bayoumi
1982 - Present
HPI: 26.00
Fares El-Bakh
1998 - Present
HPI: 19.65
Sara Ahmed
1998 - Present
HPI: 19.40
Which Athletes were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 3 most globally memorable Athletes since 1700.
