Mahmoud Fayad

Despite being among a cohort of exceptional weightlifters during Egypt’s golden years in the sport, Mahmoud Fayad stood out as an athlete. Competing as a featherweight, he first gained attention at the 1946 World Championships, where he came in second behind Sweden’s Arvid Andersson. His greatest moment, however, came in that event at the 1948 London Olympics, where he not only won gold, but set world records in snatch, clean & jerk, and total. Proving that this was no fluke, he also won the event at the next two editions of the World Championships. For political reasons, the Egyptian weightlifting federation determined that many of the country’s past champions, including Fayad, were professionals and thus ineligible to compete at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. This ended his career and he went on to live the remainder of his life in relative obscurity.