Egypt at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
| Egypt at the 2008 Summer Paralympics |
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| IPC code | EGY | ||||||||
| NPC | Egyptian Paralympic Committee | ||||||||
| in Beijing | |||||||||
| Competitors | 38 in 3 sports | ||||||||
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Medals Ranked 29th |
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| Summer Paralympics appearances | |||||||||
Egypt sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, China. The 38 member strong team won 12 medals, 4 gold, 4 silver and 4 bronze. Sports Egypt participated in included athletics, powerlifting and table tennis.
The organization previously governing Paralympic sport in Egypt changed, being replaced by the Egyptian Paralympic Committee in 2006. This was two years before the start of the Beijing Games.
Approximately 38 Egyptian athletes were expected to take part. Among Egypt's representatives included Fatma Omar in powerlifting; Mohammed Beshta, Mahmoud El-Attar, Hossam Abdel Kader and Mohammed El-Sayed Abdel Kader in track and field; and Fayza Hafez in table tennis. Another representative was Sherif Othman.
Egypt won 12 totals medals in Beijing, 4 gold, 4 silver and 4 bronze. In contrast, the country's 2008 Olympic team won a single bronze medal. Paralympians were held up as allowing the country to save face because of the excellence of their performance. This despite a typical media portrayal of people with disabilities as street beggars.
Egypt sent a number of athletics competitors to Beijing including Mohammed Beshta, Mahmoud El-Attar, Hossam Abdel Kader and Mohammed El-Sayed Abdel Kader.
Sherif Othman won gold in powerlifting for Egypt.Fatma Omar competed at and became a three-time Paralympic gold medalist in Beijing.Metwalli Mathana appeared in his fourth Paralympic Games. Egypt finished the Beijing Games with 4 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze medals in powerlifting.
Historically, Egyptian powerlifters have faced a number of barriers despite their obvious success at the Paralympic Games. They have lacked financial support. Because of the low numbers of practitioners, there is a lack of awareness among parents of children with disabilities about the potential to get involved with powerlifting. These low numbers of practitioners also make the sport cost more, which further reduces participation numbers. The materials provided by the Egyptian Paralympic Committee, and for Disabled Sport Powerlifting Federation are also sometimes wanting in quality, and the cost of distributing them means they are sometimes hard to come by. It is also hard for Egyptians to go abroad, and to bring foreign lifers to Egypt to assist Egyptians in training.
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