18 THE MANAGER
EGYPTIAN TRADITION
Ahmed El Demerdash Touny was born on August 10 1907 in Mallawi (Egypt). As the national champion in gymnastics and athletics (high-jump and pole-vault), he was considered a sportsman. He was also considered a sports leader because he established the Egyptian Gymnastics Federation in 1936, restructured the Egyptian Swimming Federation in 1939, was president of the Egyptian Volleyball Federation in 1946, and, in the same year, was elected Secretary General of the Egyptian National Olympic Committee. Besides these important services to Egyptian sport, Touny played an important role in the establishment of various regional games: he was the director of the first Mediterranean Games in 1951 and president of the Executive Board of the Arab Games in 1965. Thanks to his initiative, the idea of the Arab Games was revived in the early 1950s. He convinced the authorities to organize the first Arab Games in 1953. In 1960, Touny established an Olympic Museum in Cairo. In the same year he was elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee, a position he held until 1997. Before he passed away in 1997 he was awarded the distinguished Olympic Order. Touny’s legacy is still present at the Olympic Museum in Egypt.
Egypt was the first Arab country to participate in the Olympic Games. At that time, the Egyptian Olympic tradition was rooted in combat sports. Ali Mahmoud Hassan (wrestling, Egypt) comes from that tradition. He won the gold medal in the wrestling competition (Greco-Roman style, bantamweight 57kg) in the first Arab Games in 1953. Before the Arab Games, he participated successfully in the Olympic Games in London 1948, where he won a silver medal.
AHMED EL DEMERDASH TOUNY
ALI MAHMOUD HASSAN
Ali Mahmoud Hassan © EOC
IOC-member Ahmed El Demerdash Touny in 1971 © IOC
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ARAB SPORTS