History making efforts yet to sink in for Egyptian swimmer

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  • Top of his class: Ahmed Akram celebrates winning gold at the Youth Olympics in China.

    Egypt’s Ahmed Akram made history at the Youth Olympics in Nanjing when he claimed gold in the 800m freestyle to become the first swimmer from his country to win a medal at an Olympic event.

    His compatriot Farida Osman had won Egypt its first ever medal at a World Championship when she topped the podium in the 50m butterfly at Junior Worlds in Lima back in 2011, but no Egyptian swimmer had ever grabbed an Olympic medal before Akram stole the show in Nanjing last Thursday.

    The 17-year-old Cairo native shaved eight seconds off his personal best to clock 7:54.29 in the 800m freestyle event and become a Youth Olympic champion.

    “That feeling, winning a medal, is just huge, you can’t describe it,” Akram told Sport360 of his history-making feat.

    “You have no idea how much effort I put in, it was exhausting juggling practice and exams. I finished exams on July 1st and I was training just one workout per day until that point, which was inadequate of course.

    “When I was done with exams in the beginning of July, it was Ramadan. I couldn’t fast to be honest because I had to train twice a day to get in shape as quickly as possible.”

    Akram came up on everyone’s radar when he competed at the World Junior Championships in Dubai 12 months ago and placed fifth in the 800m with a time of 8:02.65, and eighth in the 1500m, clocking 15:24.00. The young Egyptian had said at the time that his main target was to medal at the Youth Olympics this year and he delivered on his promise in emphatic fashion.

    But the road to the top of the Youth Olympics podium was not a smooth one as he spent the last month prior to the Games commuting from opposite ends of Cairo to train in different locations twice a day.

    “There was no way I was going to let a medal slip away this time,” he said in a phone interview from China.

    “During Ramadan I would train at 9:00 in the morning, alone, at the Tersana (Arsenal) Club and at night from 21:00 until midnight with the national team at the Cairo Stadium (in Nasr City). 

    “You have no idea how boring and tough it is to swim and train by yourself. But my coach, Sherif Habib, used to encourage me constantly and tell me ‘it’s okay, you have to put in this effort so we can reach our goals because once we get there we’ll have reason to celebrate and you’ll have rewritten history for Egyptian sport’. 

    It’s been a few days since Akram’s historic triumph and he says it has all finally sunk in.

    The congratulations have poured in from all corners of the earth, including a message from the Minister of Sport in Egypt, and while he says he understands “100 per cent” the magnitude of his accomplishment, he insists it has only whet his appetite for more.

    “I want to be the greatest in what I do. I don’t ever say I can’t do anything. I put a target and I work for it. It doesn’t matter how hard my dream is, in the end I must reach it,” said the Cairene teenager.

    Of all the messages and greetings Akram has received, one particularly stands out – it is the call he got from his mother, whom he considers his No1 supporter.

    “She worked so hard with me. She’s the one supporting me all the time and wants me to be the best in everything. My father lives abroad so my mother is the one who is with me all the time and does everything for me. She and my sister are everything to me,” he says.

    As they say, there’s no rest for the weary and Akram is already looking ahead to his next meet. He will compete in the African Championships next month and could potentially participate in the World Short Course Championships in Doha this December.

    Akram is heading to college in the United States this January after being recruited by the University of South Carolina and will join them in the Spring semester, having forgone the Fall to travel to the Youth Olympics – a choice which has ultimately proven to be the right one.

    “They are one of the best universities in the States. I want to be the best swimmer in the history of college swimming. I want to win in the NCAA Championships next year,” he says. 

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