Ahmed Fouad Nessim

A world-class water polo player, Ahmed Fouad Nessim represented his native Egypt as a goalkeeper in the sport at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics, placing seventh in a field of eighteen and joint ninth in a pool of twenty-one with his team respectively. At the latter tournament, he was the nation’s flagbearer in the opening ceremony. A veteran of numerous international successes with the Egyptian national team, he was also a proficient swimmer who won several national titles. He died in an air crash over the Mediterranean Sea in October 1956 that was allegedly caused by Israeli Mossad agents who had mistaken a plane carrying Egyptian athletes for one carrying a senior Egyptian Field Marshall. The incident may also have been related to the fact that Ahmed’s brother Muhammad was a famous Egyptian intelligence figure during the era of Gamal Abdel Naser. The crash also killed Youssef Abbas, an international and Olympic basketball star for Egypt. Outside of athletics, Nessim served as a national police officer.