By: Jana Emad

 The Egyptian champion Abdelrahman Sameh Hareidy achieved a historical milestone by winning first place in the 50-meter butterfly race for men at the World Cup held in Greece with a time of 23.04 seconds.

Abdulrahman said after his victory, "I don’t know if i could celebrate this honestly, it’s been a really mentally tough week for me. I’ve been getting death threats, people have been attacking me all week for supporting Palestine, my family goes to sleep not knowing if I’m gonna wake up tomorrow or somebody’s gonna break in my room and my apartment. And they have to wonder every time I don’t pick up a call if I’m just busy or somebody is tryna kill me."

He continued, saying, "honestly, I don’t know. I don’t know if I should celebrate this or not. My brothers and sisters are being killed in Palestine right now and i am praying on that just because it’s the cause iam standing for."

 Regarding the circulation of his images and news about him, the International Swimming Federation deleted Abdulrahman`s photos from its official websites after he won the gold medal due to his supportive stance on the Palestinian cause.

 He continued to break records, as he managed to win the silver medal in the 50-meter butterfly race in the World Cup currently held in Budapest, Hungary. We witnessed his outstanding performance as he finished the race in 23.13 seconds, with a narrow 0.02-second difference from the American player who won the gold medal with a time of 23.11 seconds.

 Dr. Ashraf Sobhi, the Minister of Youth and Sports, congratulated the Egyptian Swimming Federation on Abdulrahman Samih`s victory in the World Swimming Cup in Hungary.

However, Abdulrahman posted on his Instagram account, "This post is not to attack anyone but to document events” In 2018, Minister of Youth and Sports - when the national football team was not successful in the World Cup - received and welcomed all individual sports players coming from the Mediterranean Games, and I was among them.

After the public`s attack on sports state leaders for not supporting individual sports, he told me in a text, `I support you with all the power I have, Abdulrahman.`"

He continued, "Today, I arrived in Egypt after winning the gold medal in the World Swimming Cup. His Excellency the Minister sent a bouquet of flowers to me with one of the ministry`s employees, and to this day, despite everything that happened, I haven`t received even a text message from him, even though I saw my colleagues receiving phone calls, even when they were abroad, as soon as they achieved anything. Unlike me, who just won the World Cup gold medal."

He concluded, "I am still smiling only because I returned to Egypt amid my family, my people, and my loved ones who never wavered in their support."

But he later deleted the post content out of respect and appreciation for the instructions of the President of the Egyptian Swimming Federation, Engineer Yasser Idris, and the technical director of the national team, Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim El Desouki.