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Said Rachidi (born July 14, 1986) is a boxer from Morocco best known for competing at the 2008 Olympics as middleweight.
At the Arab Championships Rachidi was edged out by Wahid Abderredha of Iraq, and he did not compete at all in the All-African Games. He was successful at the 2007 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Chicago, though, where he reached the quarterfinal to qualify for the Olympics. He lost to Bakhtiyar Artayev. At the Pan-Arab Games he defeated Abdelhafid Benchebla but was edged out in the final by Mohammed Hikal. At the 2008 Olympics he lost again to Artayev.
Rashid Ramzi is a Moroccan-Bahraini track and field athlete competing internationally for Bahrain in the 800 metres and 1500 metres. Ramzi was investigated by the IAAF after the 2008 Summer Olympics and was stripped of his gold medal for doping.
Bakhtiyar Garifollauly Artayev is a Kazakh amateur boxer who won the gold medal for Kazakhstan at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He was also the winner of the Val Barker Trophy for the outstanding boxer of the 2004 Olympics. In recognition of his success, one of the Taraz sport centres was named after him. In 2012 he was appointed as a president of the Astana Presidential Sports Club.
Abderrahmane Hammad Zaheer is the Algerian Minister of Youth and Sports and a former track and field athlete who competed in the high jump. He represented his country at the Summer Olympics in 2000, taking the bronze medal and made a second appearance at the 2004 Athens Olympics. His personal best of 2.34 m is the Algerian record for the event. He retired from the sport in 2010. In 2020, he became the President of the Algerian Olympic Committee. Hammad was appointed as minister on 16 March 2023.
Lorenzo Aragón Armenteros is a former amateur boxer from Cuba, who was a two-time world champion in the welterweight category.
The Arab Games, formerly called the Pan-Arab Games, are a regional multi-sport event held between nations from the Arab world. They are organized by the Union of Arab National Olympic Committees. The first Games took place in 1953 in Alexandria, Egypt. Intended to be held every four years since, political turmoil as well as financial difficulties have made the event an unstable one. Women first competed in 1985.
Gilberto Amauri de Godoy Filho, known as Giba, is a Brazilian former professional volleyball player who played as an outside hitter. For much of the 2000s, he was widely regarded as one of the best volleyball players in the world. During his professional career he played in Brazil, Italy, Russia, Argentina and briefly in the United Arab Emirates. He is mostly remembered for his successes with the national team.
Amine Laâlou is a Moroccan track and field athlete, who specializes in middle-distance running. He has represented his country at the Summer Olympics on two occasions; in 2004 and 2008. He began his career as an 800 metres specialist and made his global debut at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics. He won medals at smaller international competitions, including the 2004 Pan Arab Games and 2005 Mediterranean Games. He reached his first global final at the 2007 World Championships, taking sixth, and was a semi-finalist at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Nadia Ejjafini is a Moroccan-born professional long-distance runner. She switched nationality from her birth country to Bahrain in 2003, and later became an Italian citizen by marriage in 2009.
Mourad Sahraoui is an amateur boxer from Tunisia best known for winning Gold in the heavyweight division at the 2007 All-African Games.
Abdelhafid Benchabla is an Algerian amateur boxer. He represented Algeria at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics and is the current World Series of Boxing Light heavyweight champion.
Hossam Hussein Bakr Abdin is an Egyptian boxer who won a welterweight bronze at the 2007 All-Africa Games and later qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics. He also won gold in his weight division at the African Championships in 2015 and then silver in 2017.
Myke Michel de Carvalho is a Brazilian retired amateur boxer, best known for his participation in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics and for winning bronze medals at the Panamerican Games in 2007 and 2011.
The United Arab Emirates participated at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, which were held from 8 to 24 August 2008. The country's participation at the Beijing Olympics marked its seventh appearance in the Summer Olympics since its début at the 1984 Summer Olympics. The delegation sent by the United Arab Emirates National Olympic Committee consisted of eight athletes in seven sports: athletics, equestrian, judo, sailing, shooting, swimming and taekwondo. Two of the eight athletes were women, making Beijing the first time the country had sent female athletes to a Summer Olympiad, and most of their athletes qualified for the Games by using a wild card or receiving an invitation from the Tripartite Commission. The country did not win any medals at the Games; the best performance of the delegation was from sport shooter Ahmad Al-Makotum, who placed seventh in the qualification round of the men's double trap and lost a subsequent four-man shoot-out.
Seltana Aït Hammou is a Moroccan middle-distance runner who specialises in the 800 metres. She represented her country at the 2004 Summer Olympics and has also competed at the World Championships in Athletics and the IAAF World Indoor Championships. She has also been the gold medallist at number of major events including the 2001 Mediterranean Games, the 2003 Military World Games, the 2007 Pan Arab Games and the 2009 Jeux de la Francophonie.
Hassanine Sebei, Arabic: حسنين السباعي, is a Tunisian racewalker who specialises in the 20 kilometres race walk. He was the 2010 African champion and competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Olympics.
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.
Rashid Shafi Al-Dosari is a Qatari track and field athlete who competed in the discus throw. He has represented Qatar at the Summer Olympics on two occasions, making his debut in 2000 and reaching the final at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He was also a finalist at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics. In 2003 he was banned from competing for two years due to his refusal to be tested for doping.
Ahmad Hassan Moussa is a Qatari decathlete. He represented his country at the 2004 Summer Olympics and is a two time Asian Champion in the event.
Ramy Helmy El-Awady is an Egyptian Amateur boxer who competed at the 2012 Olympics at light flyweight. He fights from an orthodox stance.
Michael Hazle is a United States Olympian and National Champion Mike is also a former United States Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) Combat Controller (CCT). He is a four-time silver medalist at the US outdoor championships (2007–2010), before he claimed his first National Championship in 2011. He also won a silver medal in his category at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.