Hamse Ziyad Abdouh (or Hamza Abdu, ) (born January 1, 1991"For Palestinian swimmers, it's a chance to swim"
''Globe and Mail'', July 7, 2008), is a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

Career

He represented Palestine at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. In the lead-up to the Games, the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

reported on the difficulties he faced in training for the Olympics, having only an 18-metre pool at his disposal rather than a standard Olympic-sized 50 metre pool."Palestinian Olympic team face training hurdles"
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, June 7, 2008 His coach, while noting the support of the Israeli Swimming Association,"Palestinians take hard route to Beijing"
Reuters, June 13, 2008 lamented the travel restrictions imposed on Palestinians citizens by the

Israeli occupation Israel has occupied the Golan Heights of Syria and the Palestinian territories since the Six-Day War of 1967. It has previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to 1967, control of the Palestinian terr ...

and lack of

funding, which had hampered his training. The

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' described him, along with

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

's Elis Lapenmal, as one of the Games' "underdogs", and as such he has also been described as a "potential successor to ricMoussambani"."Lovable losers - the Olympic ideal or waste of space"
, AFP, July 6, 2008 Abdouh is the Palestinian record holder for the 100-metre freestyle and 100-metre butterfly. His personal best in the 100-metre freestyle is 56 seconds. He has said that he was inspired to become an Olympic swimmer by his cousin Raed Awisat, who swam for Palestine at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

. He lives in

East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the portion of Jerusalem that was Jordanian annexation of the West Bank, held by Jordan after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Captured and occupied in 1967, th ...

External links

"Palestinian swimmer Hamza Abdu swims during a practice session in Jerusalem May 30, 2008."

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

image.
Biography
on the official website of the Beijing Olympics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdouh, Hamse 1991 births Living people Palestinian male swimmers Olympic swimmers for Palestine Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics 21st-century Palestinian sportsmen