| Mohamed Rayan Samandi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Samandi in 2016 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname(s) | Rayan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 13 August 1986 Tunis, Tunisia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Residence | London, Great Britain | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 79 kg (174 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weapon | foil | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hand | right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FIE ranking | current ranking | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mohamed Rayan Samandi is a Tunisian foil fencer, [1] African champion in 2014. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he competed in the individual event but was defeated in the second round.
Samandi took up fencing at the age of ten. In 2005 he was the first African to win a stage of the Junior World Cup in Viana do Castelo in Portugal. He claimed the gold medal at the 2007 All-Africa Games. [2]
Samandi qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing through his results at the African qualifying fencing tournament held in Casablanca, [3] but could not attend the competition due to lack of funds. He qualified to the 2012 Summer Olympics as the best-ranked African fencer. In the first round, he defeated 15–8 Great Britain's Husayn Rosowsky, but he fell 7–15 in the next round to World No.1 Andrea Cassarà. [4]
He qualified to represent Tunisia at the 2020 Summer Olympics. [5]
Mariel Leigh Zagunis is an American sabre fencer. She is a two-time Olympic champion in the individual sabre and the first American woman to win a gold medal in fencing at the Olympics. She was Team USA flag bearer in the 2012 Summer Olympics Parade of Nations. She has two Olympic bronze team medals and is a five-time Olympian.
Laura Flessel-Colovic is a French politician and épée fencer who served as Minister of Sports from 2017 to 2018. Born in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, she has won the most Olympic medals of any French sportswoman, with five. Before 2007, she was a member of the Levallois Sporting Club Escrime, and now works with Lagardère Paris Racing. She is married and has one daughter.
Tunisia first participated at the Olympic Games in 1960, and has sent athletes to compete in every Summer Olympic Games except when they participated in the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics. The nation has never participated in any Winter Olympic Games.
Egypt competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, from 27 July to 12 August 2012, sending one of its largest delegations ever. A total of 110 Egyptian athletes participated in 83 events across 20 sports, with more women taking part than ever before. The nation's flagbearer in the opening ceremonies was Hesham Mesbah, a judoka who was Egypt's only medalist at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Egypt won two medals during the course of the Games: Alaaeldin Abouelkassem earned silver in the men's foil, becoming the first competitor from an African nation to win a fencing medal, while Karam Gaber captured silver in the men's 84 kg Greco-Roman wrestling event. Two Egyptian weightlifters were awarded medals retroactively, after higher-ranked competitors were disqualified for doping: Abeer Abdelrahman took silver in the women's 75 kg event, while Tarek Yehia, received bronze in the men's 85 kg event. Among other achievements, Mostafa Mansour was the nation's first competitor in sprint canoeing while fencer Shaimaa El-Gammal became the first Egyptian female to appear in four editions of the Olympics.
Philippe Beaudry is a Canadian Olympic sabre fencer, twice Pan American champion and eleven-time national champion, both at the junior and senior levels.
Alexandre Bouzaid is a French-Senegalese épée fencer representing Senegal in international competitions. Twice African champion, he took part in the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Sarra Besbes is a Tunisian épée fencer, seven-time gold medallist at the African Fencing Championships. She represented Tunisia at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, placing eighth, and at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, placing fifth.
Alaaeldin Mohamed El-Sayed Abouelkassem is an Egyptian fencer who won a silver medal in the men's foil event at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He took up fencing at the age of eight and, in 2008, began fencing internationally, winning medals at the African and World Junior Championships, as well as the Junior World Cup, before progressing to the senior level in 2011 and capturing bronze at the Fleuret de St-Petersbourg. Later that year, he earned gold medals at the 2011 Pan Arab Games in the individual and team foil events before progressing to the 2012 Summer Games, where he won Africa's first-ever Olympic fencing medal.
Inès Boubakri is a Tunisian foil fencer. She is a four-time Olympian, who won a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics, and is a member of Association sportive de Bourg-la-Reine in France, under head coach Yann Detienne.
Azza Besbes is a Tunisian sabre fencer, five-time African champion. She took part in the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics, finishing 7th, 9th and 5th respectively.
Amira Ben Chaabane is a Tunisian sabre fencer; gold medallist at the 2010 African Fencing Championships. She qualified to the individual event of the 2012 Summer Olympics as one of the best top-ranked fencers of the African zone. She was defeated 15-12 in the first round by Chen Xiaodong of China. In 2019, she won the African Fencing Championships again.
The fencing competitions at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo featured 12 events, the first time that both team and individual events have been held in all three weapons for both men and women.
Tunisia competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. Since the nation's official debut in 1960, Tunisian athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games, except the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow because of the nation's partial support for the US-led boycott.
Morocco competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's fourteenth appearance at the Summer Olympics.
Yémi Geoffrey Apithy is a French-Beninese sabre fencer representing Benin in international competitions, silver medalist at the 2014 and 2015 African Championships. He bore the flag for Benin at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Egypt competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place during the summer of 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the nation's debut in 1912, Egyptian athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games except 1932 and 1980, joining the United States-led boycott in the latter.
Algeria competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place in the summer of 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the nation's debut in 1964, Algerian athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games, with the exception of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal because of the African boycott. Unlike Algeria's previous successes in the Summer Olympics, they failed to secure a single medal.
Tunisia competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the nation's official debut in 1960, Tunisian athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games, except the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow because of the nation's partial support for the US-led boycott.
Senegal competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the nation's fifteenth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics.
The fencing competitions at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris were run from 27 July to 4 August at the Grand Palais strip. A total of 212 fencers, with an equal distribution between men and women, competed across twelve medal events at the Games. For the second straight time, Paris 2024 witnessed both men and women fence against each other in the individual and team events held in all three weapons.
  | This biographical article related to fencing in Tunisia is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
