Sherine El-Zeiny
Sherine Ahmed El-Zeiny is a Dutch-Egyptian artistic gymnast. Born in the Netherlands, El Zeiny trained all of her gymnastics career in the Netherlands, but she competed for her parent's homeland Egypt in numerous international tournaments since 2007, including three editions of the Summer Olympics. Representing Egypt, she won nine gold medals at the African Games and African Championships between 2007 and 2016. These include two team gold medals at the African Championships, in 2012 and 2016.
Early life
El-Zeiny was born on 23 February 1991, in Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands, to Egyptian parents. Her mother, Eman Roshdy, played tennis, and her father, Ahmed El-Zeiny, played squash. She began taking gymnastics classes regularly at the age of six after a trainer at her school gym noticed her talent.Gymnastics career
El-Zeiny competed for the Netherlands at the 2004 Junior European Championships and finished sixth with the team. She left the Dutch national team to represent Egypt in 2007 at the advice of her coach, who believed she would have a better chance at competing at the Olympic Games for Egypt. She made her debut for Egypt at the 2007 All-Africa Games and won four medals, including the all-around title. At the 2007 World Championships, she finished 91st in the all-around qualifications.El-Zeiny represented Egypt at the 2008 Summer Olympics, becoming the country's first female Olympian in artistic gymnastics. There, she finished 61st in the all-around qualifications and did not advance into any finals. At the 2009 World Championships, she finished 46th in the all-around qualifications, setting the record for the best World all-around finish for Egypt in women's gymnastics.
El-Zeiny helped Egypt win the team title at the 2012 African Championships, and she won a bronze medal on the floor exercise. She then represented Egypt at the 2012 Summer Olympics. During the qualifications, she injured her ACL during her floor routine and was unable to complete the competition. After the Olympic Games, she had surgery to repair to injury, and she missed two years of competition.
El-Zeiny returned to training nine months before the 2015 World Championships, but one week before the competition, she lost 90% of her vision due to an inflammation of the nerves in her eye and was hospitalized for three days. She still competed, but she finished behind Farah Boufadene of Algeria and all three South African gymnasts and thus did not earn a continental representation berth for the 2016 Olympic Games.
El-Zeiny won the all-around title at the 2016 African Championships and helped Egypt win the team title. Although she originally did not qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics, South Africa declined to accept to continental representation berth, and it was reallocated to El-Zeiny. At the Olympics, she scored a personal-best 53.232 in the all-around and placed 39th in the qualifications.
El-Zeiny competed at the 2017 World Championships and finished 36th in the all-around qualifications, breaking her own record for the best female Egyptian all-around finish at a World Championships. She competed with the Egyptian team that finished fourth at the 2018 Mediterranean Games. This was the final competition of her career.