Abdel Aziz El-Shafei

Abdel Aziz El-Shafei took up swimming in the 1940s and won his first national championship in 1950 as a student at King Fuad I University (now Cairo University), where he was studying economics. The following year, he represented Egypt at the inaugural Mediterranean Games, where he took silver in the water polo tournament and bronze in the 4x200 metres freestyle relay (with Dorri Abdel Kader, Taha El-Gamal, and Jack Hakim). He was also eighth in the 100 metres freestyle. He was then selected to represent his country in five events at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, but only competed in two: the 100 metres freestyle, where he was joint-41st, and the water polo tournament, where Egypt was joint-ninth.

El-Shafei continued to win national titles in short distances through 1956, but was unable to take part in that year’s Olympics as Egypt boycotted the Games due to the Suez Crisis. He did, however, earn silver in the 100 metres freestyle at the 1955 Mediterranean Games, behind France’s Aldo Eminente, and also competed at the 1953 Pan Arab Games. He gave up competitive swimming after 1956, but continued participating in water polo, coming in joint-ninth again at the 1960 Rome Olympics, this time representing the United Arab Republic officially, due to Egypt’s political union with Syria. He also took part in the tournaments at the 1959 Mediterranean Games, capturing bronze, and the 1961 Pan Arab Games.

El-Shafei’s next step was refereeing, and he quickly qualified to serve as an international water polo judge, with his most notable appearance in this regarding coming at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. He also took on administrative roles and from 1970 through 1977 he was a member of the Egyptian Olympic Committee. During that time, he headed the Egyptian delegations to the 1971 and 1975 Mediterranean Games, as well as the 1972 Munich Olympics. He then served as the Egyptian Minister of Sport from 1977 through 1979. As of 2000, he was head of the national bridge team and often partnered with Egyptian movie star Omar Sherif. For his achievements in sports administration, he was awarded the Olympic Order in Silver in 1984.