Ahmed Gebrel (born January 22, 1991) is a former Olympic swimmer who was born in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

(

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

) for a Palestinian father and Egyptian mother. He started swimming in Al-Ahly Sporting Club in Egypt at 4 years. At that time he used to hold only the Palestinian nationality so at age 15 he could represent his country Palestine in 2006. He hold the Palestinian Swimming Records in: 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m Freestyle, as well as the 200m and 400m Individual Medley. Gebrel is the first and the only Palestinian swimmer to compete twice in the Olympic Games; he participated at the

London 2012 The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

and Rio 2016 Olympic Games. He won titles and awards during his career representing Al-Ahly Sporting club in Egypt, Club Natacion Piera and Club Natacion Barcelona in Spain, and in international competitions representing Palestine. Moreover, he competed in four World FINA Championships in Rome 2009, Shanghai 2011, Barcelona 2013 & Kazan 2015. He retired in 2016 and started his career as a swimming coach. He lives in

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

since 2016, he became a competition Squads program manager in Dubai besides that he works for Abu Dhabi Sports Channel as a commentator.

Olympic career

He represented Palestine at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, competing in the Men's 400 metre freestyle and finishing in 27th place in the heats. He finished 3rd in his heat; however, he managed to break his own personal best by 9.89 seconds. After his achievement in London 2012, he received an Olympic scholarship in Barcelona to continue his professional career as an international swimmer. Ahmed made history by representing Palestine in the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, as he was the first and so far only Palestinian swimmer to compete twice at the Olympic Games. He completed in the Men's 200 metre freestyle, finishing in 47th place in the heats.

References

External links

* 1991 births Living people Palestinian male freestyle swimmers Olympic swimmers for Palestine Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2016 Summer Olympics 21st-century Palestinian sportsmen {{Palestine-swimming-bio-stub