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Who was the first Palestinian to compete at the Olympics? All you need to know about the country's first Olympian

Majed Abu Maraheel is the first Palestinian to compete at the Olympic Games. He participated in the Men’s 10,000-metre event at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and finished 21st.

Abu Maraheel, born on June 5, 1963, in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, comes from a family of Bedouin Palestinian refugees. He left school at 12 to focus on football, intending to play for the Palestine national team.

Later, he attended Palestine High School and Carmel High School for Boys in Rimal, playing for both schools' football teams. He didn't get to play for the national team but was the captain and defender for Zaytoun Sports Club.

In 1985, he helped them qualify for the Gaza Strip Premier League by playing in classification matches organized by the Palestinian Football Association. He never missed a match during that time.

In 1994, Abu Maraheel decided to pursue a career in athletics after retiring from football. He returned in 2004 to participate in a summer tournament organized by Palestine's Al-Ahly Club. Abu Maraheel's dedication to long-distance running on the streets and beaches of Gaza earned him local acclaim through several competition victories.

In June 1995, he triumphed in an eight-kilometer race at an Olympic day festival and secured first place in the Gaza Cross Country Championship. The same year, Abu Maraheel made his international debut at the Arab Athletics Championships in Cairo, Egypt.

He also competed at the 1996 Olympic Games, finishing with a time of 34:40.50, trailing Ethiopian runner Worku Bikila by nearly seven minutes.


Palestinians competing at 2024 Paris Olympic Games

The Palestinian Olympic Committee has announced six athletes, including one woman, to compete at the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024. Omar Ismail directly qualified, while the five others will compete under a system that offers wild card entries as part of the universality quota places.

Yazan al Bawwab and Valerie Tarazi will compete in swimming; Jorge Antonio Salhe will do so in shooting, Fares Badawi in judo, and Wasim Abusal in boxing. Among the five, Al Bawwab competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as well.

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