Lebanon (LBN)

After the establishment of a National Olympic Committee (NOC) on 28 December 1946, Lebanon was awarded International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognition in 1948, and made its Olympic début that year. Since then, Lebanon has competed at every Olympic Games, with the exception of 1956 (when they boycotted in protest against the Israeli occupation of the Sinai Peninsula).

Through 2022, Lebanon has won four Olympic medals, two silver and two bronze. Three of these medals were won in wrestling and one in weightlifting. These two silver medals are Lebanon’s best results at the Olympics so far, and they were won by Mohamed Kheir Tarabulsi in the 1972 men’s weightlifting middleweight class, and by Zakaria Chihab in the 1952 men’s Greco-Roman wrestling bantamweight class.

Lebanon has competed at nearly every Olympic Winter Games since 1948, only missing the Olympic Winter Games of 1994 and 1998. In 1948, the first Lebanese Winter Olympian was Ibrahim Geagea, who competed in all three Alpine skiing events. Geagea also competed in 1952, 1956, and 1960. The country has had Winter Olympians mostly competing in Alpine skiing (33 athletes), with one skeleton slider, and three male cross-country skiers. Lebanon’s best Winter finish came at Lake Placid 1980, when Farida Rahmeh finished 19th in women’s slalom Alpine skiing.

Chirine Njeim competed in three Olympic Games (2002-2010) in women’s Alpine skiing, and was twice the Lebanese flagbearer at the Opening Ceremony. She later moved to the United States, where she began running marathons. On January 2016, she ran the Houston Marathon in 2-44:14, which bettered the 2016 Olympic marathon qualifying time of 2-45:00 and made her eligible to run the marathon at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, which she did, finishing the race in 2-51:08.