Lebanon will be represented by six athletes in various disciplines in the Tokyo Summer Olympics this year.
The athletes are Ray Bassil, Nacif Elias, Mahassen Hala Fattouh, Munzer Kabbara, Marie Khoury, and Nour Hadid.
Here’s what you need to know about them.
Mahassen Hala Fattouh – Weightlifting
To date, Mahassen Hala Fattouh is the only woman to represent Lebanon in international weightlifting competitions.
She first represented her country of origin in 2014 at the International Weightlifting Federation’s World Weightlifting Championships, in Kazakhstan.
She recently ranked 8th in the 76-kg category at the Asian Weightlifting Championships 2020.
Fattouh became the first Lebanese woman to qualify for Olympic weightlifting after earning the ROBI points that she acquired by winning medals in regional and international championships, and which were needed to score the qualification.
Nacif Elias – Judo
Nacif Elias has been representing Lebanon in Judo competitions since 2013.
The Brazil-born Lebanese judoka won a silver medal in the 2014 Asian Games in South Korea, and another in the 2016 Asian Judo Championships in Uzbekistan.
He also competed in the 2016 Olympics in the 81-kg category and won the same year the Pan American Open in Lima and Buenos Aires.
In 2017, he earned a bronze medal at the Pan American Open in Santiago, a year before winning another bronze at the Grand Prix in Cancun.
Elias qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics in 2019 after competing in the World Judo Championships.
Ray Bassil – Trapshooting
Ray Bassil will be representing Lebanon in Olympic trapshooting this year for the third time in her career.
She had finished 18th at the 2012 London Olympics and 14th at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, ranking 1st globally in her sport in the same year.
Also in 2016, she won the gold medal at the International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup in Cyprus, a year after winning the gold medal at the Arab Shooting Championship in Morocco.
She qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics after winning the gold medal in the Asian Championships in 2019 in Qatar.
Munzer Kabbara – Swimming
Record-holding swimmer Munzer Kabbara has been on the Lebanese national swimming team since the age of 14.
The U.S.-based athlete, who hails from Tripoli, has represented Lebanon in several international competitions, including the 2019 FINA World Championships and the 2020 Short Course Worlds.
He holds the Lebanese record in 400 individual medley (IM) with a time of 4:21.59. His best time in short course swimming, 200 fly, is 2:05.29. Kabbara also holds the 200 fly (2:05.91), 200 IM (2:05.48), and 400 IM (4:28.83) national records in long course swimming.
Gabriella Doueihy – Swimming
This is the second time Gabriella Doueihy has qualified to represent Lebanon at the Olympic Games.
She competed and came in 31st in the first round of the women’s 400 meter freestyle event in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Doueihy has been swimming since the age of five and competing as a professional athlete in international swimming competitions since September 2014, including in the recent Belgrade Trophy 2021 held in Serbia.
Nour Hadid – Athletics
Lebanon’s fastest man, Noureddine Hadid, holds the national records in 60-meter, 200-meter, and 400-meter indoor track and field.
The sprinter, whose professional track and field career started after joining the Lebanese Armed Forces, is also the holder of the 100-meter, 200-meter, and 400-meter outdoor national records.
Hadid won his first Arab medal during the 2021 Arab Athletics Championships held in Tunisia (June 16-20), becoming the first Lebanese male sprinter to win one in the process.
It’s worth noting that Lebanon has only ever won 4 Olympic medals in the Summer Olympics since its first participation in 1948 — one of which is in weightlifting and the other three in wrestling.
The 2020 Summer Olympics will take place between July 23rd – August 8th, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan.
Editor’s note: July 26, 2021: A change has been made to the Lebanese Olympic Team since this article was published. The article has been updated to reflect this change.
