Mohamed Salah, Ahmed Hafnaoui and the 10 Arab sportsmen to watch in 2024
With the Paris Olympics looming ahead this summer and the Africa Cup of Nations and Asia Cup football tournaments kicking off in January, 2024 promises to be a big year for Arab athletes.
Here are 10 of the top sportsmen from the Mena region primed for success over the next 12 months.
At just 20 years of age, at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan last spring, Ahmed Ayoub Hafnaoui asserted himself as one of the fastest swimmers in history in all three of the men’s distance events, clinching gold in the 800m and 1,500m freestyle, and silver in the 400m freestyle.
His time in the 1,500 freestyle ranks him second all-time, while his 800 freestyle was the third-fastest in history, and his 400 freestyle the fifth-fastest.
Hafnaoui exploded onto the scene at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 when he stunned the field to win gold in 400m freestyle while swimming in lane 8, which is dedicated to the slowest swimmer of the eight qualifiers into the final.
Just 18 at the time, Hafnaoui shocked himself and the world with his performance and has proven two years later his Tokyo heroics were no fluke.
Currently training in California with The Swim Team (TST) elite group under acclaimed coach Mark Schubert, Hafnaoui has a busy year ahead with the World Aquatics Championships coming up in February in Qatar and the Paris 2024 Olympics commencing in July.
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The tireless Mohamed Salah has so far netted 12 goals in 19 Premier League games for Liverpool this campaign, standing joint-second on the top-scorers list behind Erling Haaland (14).
He has been setting records all year and his exploits have helped guide the Reds to the top of the Premier League table.
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