The story behind the historic bronze medal

CAIRO – 30 July 2017: Egyptian swimmer Farida Osman has put her name in the history after winning the Bronze Medal in 50m butterfly race in Aquatic World Championships in Budapest, Hungary to become the first Egyptian ever to win a colored medal in the history of the competition.

The Egyptian Swimmer had a long story to tell behind this achievement; in this article we will reveal 22 unknown facts about the 22 years champion.

1. Farida Osman was born in Indianapolis, United States, on January 18, 1995 for two Egyptian doctors, Randa Al-Salawi and Hisham Osman.

2. Farida began learning to swim and get involved in the sport since she was four years old at Al Jazira Club with her brother Ahmed. She stopped for a while to learn water ballet.

3. She returned to practice swimming at the age of 11, and began to enter competitions in which to represent Egypt and travel for training and competition outside Egypt through the club.

4. When Farida was at primary school, she studied at the French school of Oasis in Cairo and then moved to another school, the French Lycee.

5. She joined the American University in Cairo and majored in media studies and recently travelled to study economics in California.

6. In 2006, Farida's talent for swimming began to emerge as she entered her first competition. She won the second place in Freestyle and Butterfly, and she passed 200m and won the tournament as the best player in the competition.

7. When she reached the age of 12, she competed in the competition, known as the 'Pan Arab games' in its 11th season in 2007, which was held in Egypt at that time, as the youngest swimmer in the competition of the 50m and 100m of freestyle and butterfly.

8. In Pan Arabs, Farida broke the record in the 50m and won the fifth place, her time was 28.95s, and reached the sixth place in the butterfly swim for the competition of 100m.

9. She participated in the international swimming competition 'Sindelfingen' and reached second place, where she won the tournament as the best competitor.

10. In her 13th year, Farida traveled to the United States to take part in a summer training camp for a team called Bear Tim in Berkeley, California, during which she participated in the Junior Olympics and was one of the top 10 in her swimming team.

11. At the age of 14. She competed in the FINA competition in Rome, Italy, and reached the 66th position in the 50m freestyle competition in 26.77s. In the 50m butterfly swimming competition she reached the 50th place where she was swimming 27.78s and thus became the fastest swim in the world in this age.

12. In the 100 meters freestyle competition, she was at the 87th place with 59.45s and in the butterfly, she was in the 64th position and passed the competition with a time of 1,03,21.

13. In the same year, she took part in the 8th African Youth Competition in her 8th season in Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean. She won the first place in the 50m freestyle competition with a time of 26.36s. In the butterfly competition of 50m, with a time of 27,60s.

14. Farida participated in the African Championship in Casablanca, Morocco in 2010 and won the 50m butterfly with a record number 27.28s, the 50m freestyle (26.72 s and the 4x100m) freestyle relay and 3 bronze in 100m butterfly, 50m back and 4x100m various relay.

15. She participated in the FINA competition in Peru in 2011. She became the world's youngest champion and won the third place in the 50m butterfly competition. She reached a record time of 26.69s. She won the gold medal and made Egypt the 11th place in the World’s Medal list, the highest position reached by any Arab or African country.

16. Farida joined the medal club, which no Egyptian swimmer had ever entered, and in December 2011 she competed for the title of Pan Arab games in Qatar.

17. In 2012 at the Summer Olympics held in London , she was selected in the 50m freestyle competition to represent Egypt with her partner Shehab Younis, finishing her swim with 26.34s and getting Egypt 41st place.

18. In 2013, the aquatic world championships were held in Barcelona, Spain, and Osman won 24th place in the 100m butterfly competition in 59.85s.

19. On the 5th day, she won 40th place in the 100m freestyle competition with 59.85 seconds. On the 6th day of the competition, she won 11th place in the 50m butterfly swimming competition with 26.17 seconds. She reached the finals and won the 7th place in the 50m butterfly in a time of 26.17 seconds in August 2013, and this was the highest rank Egypt reached in the history of swimming races.

20. Farida achieved great success as an Egyptian swimmer in 2015 in FINA competition for the second time. She won the gold medal in the free competition. She won the third place in the 100m freestyle competition and won the gold medal in the African Games at Brazzaville, where they competed in the 50m, which she achieved in 25.12s.

21. In 2016, Farida won the first place and the gold medal in the American Universities Championship with a time of 21.32s, thus achieving the second best competitor in the world in the 50 meters freestyle competition.

22. She participated in the last Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and took second place with a time of 24.91s, breaking the Arab and African record, and failed to qualify for the final 16, which came in the 18th place.