Gamal El-Nazer

Gamal El-Nazer played several sports in his youth, including basketball, but it was water polo that would take him to the Olympics in 1960. There, as a representative of the United Arab Republic due to Egypt’s union with Syria, he was eliminated in the preliminary round. Nazer had a much more successful career in business, which began with him earning a degree in commerce from Cairo University in 1950. He undertook postgraduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh before returning to Egypt and becoming involved in a variety of businesses, as well as politics. His career in the latter culminated in his appointment as Minister of International Cooperation, and then of Tourism and Antiquities, in the 1980s under Anwar Sadat. He was also involved on several boards of directors, including that of the Heliopolis Sporting Club.