In a historic achievement for Egypt, Feryal Abdelaziz Ashraf claimed the country’s first gold medal at the Olympics in the Women’s Karate Kumite +61kg event during Tokyo 2020 games.
Born on 16 February, 1999, she first took up karate at just age seven in Cairo. Since then, she’s honed her ability to fight confidently from the start, with her previously representing Egypt at the 2019 African Games held in Morocco, winning a silver medal in the women’s Kumite 69kg event.
The Egyptian presidency announced in August 2021 that President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi decided that a new bridge that intersects with the Taha Hussein Axis in the Fifth Settlement district should be named after Olympic champion Feryal Ashraf.
The move comes in recognition of Ashraf’s athletic achievements at the Tokyo Olympics.
Ashraf is the first Egyptian, African and Arab woman to win the gold medal in the Karate Kumite +61kg event in the Olympics.
In her education, she studied at The British University in Egypt and trained to become a pharmacist.