Sara Ahmed (weightlifter)

Sara Ahmed
Personal information
Full nameSara Samir Elsayed Mohamed Ahmed
Born (1998-01-01) 1 January 1998 (age 25)
Al-Huaniya, Ismailia Governorate, Egypt
Height155 cm (5 ft 1 in)
Weight71.00 kg (157 lb)
Sport
CountryEgypt
SportWeightlifting
Event(s)–71 kg
Coached byKhaled Korani
Medal record
Representing  Egypt
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place 2016 Rio de Janeiro 69 kg
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2022 Bogotá –76 kg
Silver medal – second place 2018 Ashgabat –71 kg
Youth Olympics
Gold medal – first place 2014 Nanjing 63 kg
African Games
Gold medal – first place 2015 Brazzaville 69 kg
Arab Championships
Gold medal – first place 2015 Sharm el-Shiekh 69 kg
World Junior Championships
Gold medal – first place 2015 Wrocław 69 kg
Gold medal – first place 2018 Tashkent 69 kg
World Youth Championships in Athletics
Gold medal – first place 2015 Lima 63 kg
Gold medal – first place 2013 Tashkent 63 kg
Junior African Championships
Gold medal – first place 2012 Tunis 63 kg
Youth African Championships
Gold medal – first place 2012 Tunis 63 kg

Sara Samir Elsayed Mohamed Ahmed (Arabic: سارة سمير السيد محمد أحمد; born 1 January 1998) is an Egyptian weightlifter who won a bronze medal in the women's 69 kg event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She won the gold medal in the women's 76kg event at the 2022 World Weightlifting Championships held in Bogotá, Colombia. Originally from the Ismailia Governorate, Ahmed was encouraged to take part in weightlifting by her family and was competing internationally by 2012. At the senior level, she has earned gold medals at the Mediterranean and African Games, as well as the Arab Championships. In Rio de Janeiro, she became the first Arab woman to receive an Olympic weightlifting medal and the first Egyptian woman to receive an Olympic medal on the podium in any discipline.

Early life

Ahmed was born in the village of Al-Huaniya in Egypt's Ismailia Governorate. Her father (who died in 2015) and older brother were national competitors in weightlifting, which inspired her to take up the sport in 2010. Although her participation in the sport interfered with her studies somewhat, she received encouragement and support for her family and found success in local and regional tournaments, eventually earning herself a spot on the Egyptian national team.

Career

Ahmed's international career began at the 2012 Junior African Championships in Tunis, where she won gold in the 63 kg division. She repeated that feat at the Youth edition, held in the same city, as well as the 2013 Youth World Championships in Tashkent. Her first senior-level competition was the 2013 Mediterranean Games, where she won the clean & jerk portion and was third in the snatch, leaving her second overall behind Turkey's Sibel Şimşek (Romela Begaj of Albania had the same total, but a higher body weight). She then bumped up to the 69 kg division and won that category at the 2014 African Youth and Junior Championships, then returned to 63 kg and earned gold at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics. She competed one last time in the 63 kg division at the 2014 World Championships in Almaty, where she placed 12th, and then returned to 69 kg and captured gold at the 2015 African Games and Youth and Junior World Championships; at the latter she was named the Best Female Lifter. She placed fourth at the 2015 World Championships in Houston and took home gold at that year's Arab Championships held in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Ahmed represented Egypt at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the women's 69 kg event, skipping her high school exams in order to compete. To prepare for the Games, she attended training camps in Uzbekistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Brazil. In Rio she won a bronze medal, lifting a combined weight of 255 kg. She thus became the first Arab woman to win an Olympic weightlifting medal and the first Egyptian woman to win an Olympic medal, although Abeer Abdelrahman retroactively received a silver medal from the women's 75 kg weightlifting event at the 2012 Summer Olympics, as all three medalists in that event tested positive for banned substances and she was upgraded from fifth to third after the Games. Ahmed was also the first Egyptian to win a weightlifting medal since 1948, with the caveat that Abdelrahman and Tarek Yehia retroactively received medals from the London Games. Later in the day, Mohamed Ihab joined her in this distinction by taking bronze in the men's 77 kg.

Upon her return she was honored in a ceremony held by Ismailia governor Yassin Taher, received congratulatory messages from Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and was given 500,000 Egyptian pounds. Soon after receiving the medal, she declared her intention to train for gold at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Following her victory, she encouraged the Egyptian government to do more to support its athletes, including granting more leniency for athletes in terms of taking college-preparatory exams. She has no special nutritional routine and is coached by the national team's Khaled Korany.

Ahmed won gold in both portions of the 69 kg division at the 2018 Mediterranean Games. The following month, at the 2018 Junior World Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, she won all three categories of the 69 kg tournament. At the senior edition that year, she was third in the snatch and second in the clean and jerk, which placed her second overall in the 71 kg division. She is engaged to another Egyptian Olympic weightlifter, Ragab Abdelhay.

Major results

Year Venue Weight Snatch (kg) Clean & Jerk (kg) Total Rank
1 2 3 Rank 1 2 3 Rank
Olympic Games
2016 Brazil Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 69 kg 107 110 112 3 135 140 143 3 255 3rd place, bronze medalist(s)
World Championships
2014 Kazakhstan Almaty, Kazakhstan 63 kg 100 104 104 13 120 125 129 12 229 12
2015 United States Houston, United States 69 kg 105 110 112 6 135 138 138 5 245 5
2017 United States Anaheim, United States 69 kg 102 102 104 126 132 136 1st place, gold medalist(s) --
2018 Turkmenistan Ashgabat, Turkmenistan 71 kg 105 110 111 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 136 141 2nd place, silver medalist(s) 252 2nd place, silver medalist(s)
2022 Colombia Bogotá, Colombia 76 kg 109 113 116 1st place, gold medalist(s) 138 143 148 1st place, gold medalist(s) 261 1st place, gold medalist(s)
African Games
2015 Republic of the Congo Brazzaville, Congo 69 kg 95 102 105 1st place, gold medalist(s) 126 132 136 1st place, gold medalist(s) 234 1st place, gold medalist(s)
Mediterranean Games
2013 Turkey Mersin, Turkey 63 kg 92 98 100 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 112 120 124 1st place, gold medalist(s) 216
2018 Spain Tarragona, Spain 69 kg 100 105 107 1st place, gold medalist(s) 127 135 1st place, gold medalist(s) 240
World Junior Championships
2015 Poland Wrocław, Poland 69 kg 102 105 106 1st place, gold medalist(s) 125 128 130 1st place, gold medalist(s) 232 1st place, gold medalist(s)
2018 Uzbekistan Tashkent, Uzbekistan 69 kg 100 105 107 1st place, gold medalist(s) 125 133 137 1st place, gold medalist(s) 238 1st place, gold medalist(s)
Youth Olympic Games
2014 China Nanjing, China 63 kg 97 103 103 1 118 125 129 1 228 1st place, gold medalist(s)
World Youth Championships
2013 Uzbekistan Tashkent, Uzbekistan 63 kg 92 97 101 1st place, gold medalist(s) 113 120 124 1st place, gold medalist(s) 221 1st place, gold medalist(s)
2015 Peru Lima, Peru 69 kg 100 103 108 1st place, gold medalist(s) 125 130 133 1st place, gold medalist(s) 236 1st place, gold medalist(s)

See also


This page was last updated at 2023-09-14 14:21 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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