‘Little Olympian’: Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez says she competed in Paris while pregnant
- The 3-time Olympian revealed in an Instagram post that she competed in the sabre event, reaching the round of 16, while sevens months pregnant
Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez has revealed she competed at the Paris Olympics, reaching the last 16 in her event and defeating a higher-ranked rival on the way, while seven months pregnant.
Hafez, a three-time Olympian from Cairo, ranked 26th, beat American fencer Elizabeth Tartakovsky in the sabre event before succumbing to Jeon Ha-young of South Korea in the quarter-finals on Monday.
“Three times ‘Olympian’ but this time carrying a little Olympian!” the 26-year-old said on Instagram late Monday.
“What appears to you as two players … they were actually three! It was me, my competitor, and my yet-to-come to our world, little baby!” she wrote in English.
She previously competed in Rio in 2016 and in the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021 in the highly demanding sabre, a slashing weapon that demands lightning speed and reflexes from competitors.
