Abdel Latif Khalaf

Abdel Latif Khalaf took up wrestling in his youth and was already impressing coaches at the age of 11 with his talent. He began to represent Egypt internationally in 1983 and was runner-up in the bantamweight, Greco-Roman event at the 1983 Junior World Championships. In his first outing as a senior, he was runner-up at the 1984 African Championships and also competed at that year’s Los Angeles Olympics, where he was eliminated in the second round of his group.

After moving up to the featherweight division, Khalaf became African Champion in 1985 and defended his title the following year, as well as at the 1987 All-Africa Games. By the end of the year he had moved up to the lightweight category and, although he became African Champion in that division in 1988, at the Seoul Olympics he was eliminated in round two of five in his group. He later moved to the United States and settled in New York.