CHALLENGING TRADITIONS IN EGYPTIAN SPORTS

Gender disparity in Egyptian sports exists despite growing interest. Efforts are underway to encourage and achieve gender equality in sports, promoting inclusivity and diversity.

Multimedia Reporting Capstone Spring 2024

Farida Yassin

THE OLYMPIC JOURNEY TOWARDS GENDER EQUALITY

A timeline showing the evolution of women's participation in the Olympic Games since 1896

THE DOMINANCE OF GENDER IN SPORTS AND THE IMPACT OF MEDIA VISIBILITY IN EGYPT

Sports has been known to be a male-dominated field throughout the history of the World, especially Egypt, giving little to no attention to female athletes, but with the rise of women empowerment movements and awareness, the dominance has shifted a bit.

In a 2023 Egypt Today interview, the first female sports presenter on beIN SPORTS, Nirvana Elabd, shared her view on the inclusivity of women in sports.

“Efforts have been made for some time now to address various challenges that impact media coverage of women’s sports [...] For example, the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 featured 32 national teams for the first time, representing a huge achievement for a tournament that just 12 years ago involved only 16 participants,” said Elabd.

Achieving this milestone has been challenging, particularly since the Women’s World Cup was established in 1991 and the Men’s (1930) decades earlier.

Consequently, it’s not surprising that the media coverage of both has not been equal, especially in Arab countries, but this began to change when beIN SPORTS covered the 2023 Women’s World Cup match.

“BeIN SPORTS recorded a cumulative viewership of 93.5 million viewers for the Women’s World Cup, which is unprecedented in this region,” added Elabd to Egypt Today.

Helen Rizzo, an associate professor and sociology unit head at the American University in Cairo, shared her insights on the topic given her teaching interests include the sociology of gender and religion and the study of Arab families.

“It took a long time to get this kind of recognition with the Women's World Cup. I would hear about it on the news and people who are into soccer whether men's or women's, they were following the women's. And I thought, now they’re at least seen as athletes that are worth watching and pay them like they should be paid,” commented Rizzo.

“They’re at least seen as athletes that are worth watching” -Helen Rizzo

Even one of the world's most popular sports, such as football, has faced difficulties in providing female athletes with the media attention, appreciation, and recognition they deserve. Similarly, smaller-scale sports like artistic swimming in Egypt may encounter similar challenges.

In an interview conducted by Inside Synchro in 2021, the two-time (and likely three-time) Olympic Champion, Nihal Saafan, shared her experience as a long-time artistic swimmer in Egypt.

“Before Rio [the 2016 Olympics], the media started talking about us, the Olympic team of synchronized swimming. They showed some of our videos on TV or on YouTube, and that was great. But we had very negative comments online. People insulted us, or said, “How can a dad let their daughter be like that?” What is, “Like that?” We are doing a sport. If you see tennis, they are wearing shorts. In gymnastics, they are wearing leotards. Why is synchronized swimming such a blackhole to everybody?” said Saafan.

The negative views on artistic swimming still exist. However, with the Egyptian media showing snippets of the sport in the Ramadan TV series ‘Al Harsha Al Sabaa’ in 2023, in ads like Banque Misr in Ramadan 2024, and celebrities’ social media posts of their kids like Ahmed Dawood and Ola Roshdy’s kid, the Egyptian society is becoming more familiar with the sport.

This increased visibility has led to an increase in the number of participants in different clubs around Cairo and Alexandria, as evidenced by recent competitions.

NIHAL SAAFAN

ROAD TO THE THIRD OLYMPICS

A profile documentary on Nihal Saafan, highlighting her remarkable journey as a two-time Olympian. The documentary explores the various challenges she has encountered along the way, offering an in-depth view of her dedication, perseverance, and achievements in the world of artistic swimming since 2001.

REDEFINING MEN'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO ARTISTIC SWIMMING IN EGYPT

Artistic swimming has been known to be an all-women sport around the world until an eye-opening bombshell has dropped and shook the future of the sport in Egypt.

World Aquatics, which is the official global governing organization for all aquatic sports and originally known as the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), has decided that men are to compete for the first time in Olympics history in the upcoming 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Surprisingly, the sport was originally founded in 1891 in Berlin and in 1892 in London as an all-male sport, according to Aquatics GB, until it was seen as a better fit for women because of the leg extension.

The sport was first introduced to the Olympics in the 1984 Los Angeles Games, however, men were competing “at lower levels for decades,” according to AP News, until they were able to compete officially in the Aquatics World Championship ever since 2015.

44-year-old Bill May, who was one of the first men to compete internationally, said in a 2023 AP News interview: “There has always been that misconception that it’s a female-only sport” and that he thinks by including men, the sport will grow not only in numbers, but also in popularity.

In another AP interview with Kenny Gaudet, an 18-year-old boy, he shares his struggles as an artistic swimmer in the United States whose only dream was to compete in the sport he loves.

“It makes me emotional just to think about the problems we all went through and the struggles we all had just to get a chance to swim and do what we love,” said Gaudet to AP.

Gaudet also talked about the time he almost quit the sport in a 2022 Inside Synchro interview.

“I’ve had a couple of times in my life when I wanted to quit synchro because of the generalization that this sport is only for girls. I’ve been bullied quite a lot,” explained Gaudet to Inside Synchro.

While some believe that this is a new and promising era for diversity and inclusivity, some countries like Egypt find it difficult to cope with that as it is uncommon to include men in feminine sports like artistic swimming.

Ingie Ramadan, a former Egyptian artistic swimmer and currently a national judge (since 1997), shared her insights on the topic given she has been in the field for a long time and witnessed the change.

“Some of our culture still doesn’t accept the fact that men dance, let alone play a feminine sport. As an Egyptian judge, I know for a fact that Egyptian men will never play this sport, the only exception for inclusivity is if foreigners who live in Egypt join, which will still be unacceptable to our culture,” said Ramadan.

According to AP News, “there is no requirement for men to be included,” yet.

“It’s only a matter of time before men will be an official requirement for international competitions, and if that happens, I don’t think Egypt will maintain the sport internationally anymore,” added Ramadan.

Ever since the inclusion of men in artistic swimming international competitions, there hasn’t been a representative or an official statement commenting on that, even after the decision of them competing in the upcoming Olympics.

An anonymous national judge stated: “Every time an international judge talks about men in artistic swimming during [judge] workshops, they [the Egyptian Swimming Federation] prohibit us from saying our opinion.”

USA Mixed Duet Bill May and Kristina Lum Underwood at the FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia, 2015.

Italy Mixed Duet Lucrezia Ruggiero and Giorgio Minisini at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest. Nikola Krstic/MB Media/Getty Images

China Mixed Team at the 2022 FINA World Championships in Budapest. Xinhua/Zheng Huansong

USA Mixed Team at the World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka, Japan in 2023. AP Photo/Nick Didlick

ABOUT ME

A 23-year-old Multimedia and Journalism major and Interactive Media Design minor. For this project, I shed light on different views on sports rarely seen and discussed in Egypt.

As a former artistic swimmer, my journey has been filled with challenges and triumphs, shaping me into the coach I am today. From the early days of learning routines to competing on national stages, every moment has been eventful. Now, as I continue to pursue my passion for artistic swimming, I am grateful for the invaluable lessons this sport has taught me. I cherish the supportive community that has been by my side every step of the way. This project holds immense personal significance, as it allowed me to share my love for artistic swimming and showcase its beauty to the world.