The celebration of the Centenary of the Egyptian Olympic Committee

The French educator Pierre de Fredy, Baron de Coubertin founded the international Olympic committee (IOC) on 23 June, 1894, having been inspired to revive the games of the ancient Greeks.
The Egyptian Olympic Committee was established by Anglo Bolanaki on June 13, 1910 under the chairmanship of Prince Omar Tosson. Egypt became only the 14th country to join the International Olympic Committee.

This opened the way for the country’s participation in the fifth edition, the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, but just one athlete represented the nation; fencer Ahmed Hassanein.                                                                                                           Following World War 1, Egypt participated in earnest at the Antwerp Games in 1920 represented by a delegation of 20 athletes taking part in athletics, gymnastics, fencing, wrestling, weightlifting and football. It was a similar situation when the 1924 games were held in Paris. However, it was not until 1928 that Egyptians athletes were to return home victorious.

The Egyptian Olympic Committee has a quiet remarkable Olympic history as a leader on the continent of Africa and the Arab world. During its Olympic history, Egypt has won 24 Olympic Medals, seven gold, seven silver and 10 bronze.Egypt’s finest hour came at the Berlin Games in 1936,when five medals were won, all in weightlifting.

The international weightlifting Federation had refused to recognize a new world record set by the legendary middleweight, Khadr El Touni in Egypt before the Olympics began, claiming that the weight he had snatched was a physical impossibility. However,when he repeated the performance witnessed by thousands of spectators, 75 kilo El Touni took the gold and entered the record books. He had lifted 387.5 kilos, an awesome 35 kilos more than Rudolf Ismayr of Germany who took the silver.

His unforgettable performance earned him an official plaque etched with his name, which hung outside the Berlin stadium. His record was held for 52 years until it was broken by the celebrated Naim Suleymanoglu of Turkey who holds the Guinness
world Record for the most Olympic weightlifting gold medals won, three, from the Olympic Games 1988, 1992 and 1996.

On the occasion of the Centennial Anniversary, the Egyptian Olympic Committee will organise great celebrations at the Great Pyramids of Giza during the period 10 to 14 December, 2010 in the presence of Dr. Jacques Rogge, IOC President, the Members of the IOC Executive Board besides several Presidents of the Arab NOCs, the International Federations, the Continental Federations and Members of the ICMG Executive Board.

During the Centennial Celebration, Egypt NOC will honour allthose still living for their contribution to the Olympic Games: The Egyptian Olympian Champions who won Olympic Medals, the ex-presidents of the Egyptian Olympic Committee, the IOC members from Egypt and the chefs de mission of the Egyptian delegations which participated at the Olympic, African, Arab and Mediterranean Games.
Egypt’s NOC will publish an illustrated Encyclopaedia titled “Egyptian Olympic Committee during 100 years” and will make a documentary with the same title.