The Most Famous

ATHLETES from Egypt

This page contains a list of the greatest Egyptian Athletes. The pantheon dataset contains 6,025 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 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 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. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Egyptian Athletes.

1. Mahmoud Fayad (1925 - 2002)

With an HPI of 48.80, Mahmoud Fayad is the most famous Egyptian Athlete. Her biography has been translated into 17 different languages on wikipedia.

Mahmoud Fayad (Egyptian Arabic: محمود فياض; 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 48.35, Ibrahim Shams is the 2nd most famous Egyptian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Ibrahim Hassanien Shams (Egyptian Arabic: ابراهيم شمس; 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 Olympic medals, after Farid Simaika, who earned them in diving at the 1928 Summer Olympics. Shams was the first Egyptian to win two medals at two different Olympic tournaments.

3. Khadr El-Touni (1915 - 1956)

With an HPI of 45.88, Khadr El-Touni is the 3rd most famous Egyptian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Khedr Sayed El Touny (Egyptian 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. Mamdouh Elssbiay (b. 1984)

With an HPI of 43.79, Mamdouh Elssbiay is the 4th most famous Egyptian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Mamdouh Mohammed Hassan Elssbiay (Arabic: ممدوح محمد حسن السبيعي; born 16 September 1984), also known as Big Ramy, is an Egyptian professional bodybuilder who competes in the men's open bodybuilding division in the IFBB Pro League. Known for his size and conditioning, he is a two time Mr. Olympia champion, winning in 2020 and 2021. Born in Kafr El Sheikh, Elssbiay started to train professionally as a bodybuilder in 2009 after moving to Kuwait. He eventually earned his pro card by winning the overall title at the 2012 Amateur Olympia in Kuwait City. In 2013, he made his IFBB Pro-debut at the New York Pro, which he won. He won the Arnold Classic Brazil in 2015, becoming the first Egyptian to win the title. In 2020, he became the first Egyptian bodybuilder to win the Mr. Olympia title, the second Middle Eastern bodybuilder to win after Lebanese Samir Bannout in 1983, and the first non-American since British champion Dorian Yates in 1997. Outside his competitive bodybuilding career, Elssbiay is involved in several business ventures as an athlete and entrepreneur. After several years of representing multiple supplement companies, he started his own brand, Red Rex, in 2022, and has worked as a show promoter.

5. Tamer Bayoumi (b. 1982)

With an HPI of 29.15, Tamer Bayoumi is the 5th most famous Egyptian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Tamer Salah Ali Abdu Bayoumi (Egyptian 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.

6. Feryal Abdelaziz (b. 1999)

With an HPI of 26.73, Feryal Abdelaziz is the 6th most famous Egyptian Athlete. Her biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Feryal Ashraf Abdelaziz (Egyptian Arabic: فريال اشرف عبد العزيز; born 16 February 1999) is an Egyptian karateka and the first female Egyptian to have won a gold medal at the Olympic Games. She won the gold medal in the women's +61 kg event at the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan.

7. Ihab Abdelrahman (b. 1989)

With an HPI of 25.22, Ihab Abdelrahman is the 7th 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.

8. Fares El-Bakh (b. 1998)

With an HPI of 21.83, Fares El-Bakh is the 8th most famous Egyptian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 19 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.

9. Sara Ahmed (b. 1998)

With an HPI of 19.75, Sara Ahmed is the 9th 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 and the silver medal in the women's 81kg event at the 2024 Summer Olympics. She won the gold medal in the women's 76 kg event at the 2022 World Weightlifting Championships. 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.

10. Mohamed Elsayed (b. 1973)

With an HPI of 0.00, Mohamed Elsayed is the 10th most famous Egyptian Athlete. His biography has been translated into different languages.

Mohamed Elsayed is also the alias of Mohamed AttaMohamed Elsayed (Egyptian Arabic: محمد السيد; born 1973) is an Egyptian boxer who competed in the heavyweight class (81 – 91 kg) at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

People

Pantheon has 54 people classified as Egyptian athletes born between 1915 and 2003. Of these 54, 51 (94.44%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Egyptian athletes include Mamdouh Elssbiay, Tamer Bayoumi, and Feryal Abdelaziz. The most famous deceased Egyptian athletes include Mahmoud Fayad, Ibrahim Shams, and Khadr El-Touni. As of April 2024, 46 new Egyptian athletes have been added to Pantheon including Mamdouh Elssbiay, Mohamed Elsayed, and Jayda Sharaf.