Sara Ahmed

Sara Samir Elsayed Mohamed Ahmed, born on January 1st, 1998, is an Egyptian weightlifter who made history when she won a bronze medal in the 69 kg category at the 2016 Rio Olympics and became the first Egyptian woman to do this. She has since won gold medals at the 2018 Mediterranean Games and the 2022 and 2023 World Championships. Sara will compete in the 81 kg category at Paris 2024 and is set to be the flag bearer for Egypt at the Olympics. 

In the early days of her career, she competed in the junior and youth weightlifting competitions, where she quickly gained recognition. She won her first international gold at the 2021 Junior African Championships and continued to build her success by winning other competitions, like the 2013 Youth World Championships and the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics. 

She won gold in the 69 kg category at the 2018 Mediterranean Games and followed up with another strong performance at the 2018 Junior World Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She was also really successful at the 2022 and 2023 World Weightlifting Championships, where she won gold medals in the 76 kg weight class in both years. 

She had a setback when she missed the Tokyo 2020 Olympics because of the suspension of the Egyptian weightlifting foundation. But since then, she’s refocused and started training for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. She’s also switched to the 81 kg category. 

Sara got involved in weightlifting thanks to her father and older brother, who were both national-level weightlifters. Although lifting took a lot of time from her studies, her family supported her all the way. 

She’s engaged to another Egyptian weightlifter, Ragab Abdelhay, and is very outspoken about needing more support for athletes in Egypt.