Egypt at the 1984 Winter Olympics

Egypt competed in the Winter Olympic Games for the first, and as of 2022 only, time at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. Its only participant was alpine skier Jamil El Reedy, who competed in three disciplines, but did not win a medal.

Egypt at the
1984 Winter Olympics
IOC codeEGY
NOCEgyptian Olympic Committee
Websitewww.egyptianolympic.org (in Arabic and English)
in Sarajevo
Competitors1 in 1 sport
Flag bearer Jamil El Reedy[1]
Medals
Gold
0
Silver
0
Bronze
0
Total
0
Winter Olympics appearances (overview)

Background edit

Prior to 1984, Egypt had sent athletes to eleven editions of the Summer Olympic Games (three times as the United Arab Republic), the 1906 Intercalated Games, and equestrian at the 1956 Summer Olympics.[note 1] The 1984 Winter Games were Egypt's first, and as of 2018 only, appearance at the Winter Olympics. The nation entered one athlete, Jamil El-Reedy, to the alpine skiing tournament, where he competed in three disciplines, but failed to win a medal.[2]

Alpine skiing edit

El-Reedy was born in Cairo,[3] to an Egyptian father and an American mother who taught English at the American University in Cairo. He moved to Plattsburgh, New York when his family left Egypt following the Six-Day War.[4] Coached by his father, he became a successful skier in high school, training on Whiteface Mountain. He was selected to represent Egypt at the 1984 Games at the age of 18, despite never having competed internationally, and in preparation spent 40 days in an Egyptian cave filled with snakes and scorpions to strengthen his mental resolve.[5] At the Games he competed in three events, with his best placement being 46th out of 101 entrants in the men's slalom. He was also 60th out of 61 participants in the men's downhill, finishing over a minute behind the penultimate finisher, Greece's Lazaros Arkhontopoulos, and failed to finish the men's giant slalom after a fall on the first run.[3]

Men
Athlete Event Race 1 Race 2 Total
Time Rank Time Rank Time Rank
Jamil El-Reedy Downhill 3:13.86 60
Jamil El-Reedy Giant Slalom DNF DNF
Jamil El-Reedy Slalom 1:30.56 65 1:26.37 46 2:56.93 46

References edit

  1. ^ "Flagbearers for Egypt". olympedia.org. OlyMADMen. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  2. ^ Gjerde, Arild; Jeroen Heijmans; Bill Mallon; Hilary Evans (June 2016). "Egypt at the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Games". Olympics. Sports Reference.com. Archived from the original on 2020-04-17. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
  3. ^ a b Gjerde, Arild; Jeroen Heijmans; Bill Mallon; Hilary Evans (June 2016). "Jamil El-Reedy Bio, Stats, and Results". Olympics. Sports Reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
  4. ^ "Egyptian skier breaks new ground". The Index-Journal. 5 February 1984. p. 19. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  5. ^ "Egypt at the Winter Olympics". Cairo Scene. 24 January 2014. Archived from the original on 11 January 2017. Retrieved 12 November 2016.

Notes edit

  1. ^ The 1912 Olympic report Archived 2014-02-07 at the Wayback Machine lists Egypt as having sent a fencer to those Games, but there is uncertainty as to whether he actually competed.