2024 Olympic Games. even Nada Hafez, the coach of the Egyptian Sabriz, was not aware of her pregnancy.

Fencer Nada Hafez kept it a secret during her participation in the 2024 Paris Olympics fencing tournament, which was eliminated by South Korea’s John Ha-Young (15:7) in the round of 16 on Monday, July 29, the Egyptian immediately revealed that she 7 months pregnant. “You thought you saw two people on the track, but there were actually three. Me, my rival, and the one who will soon join our world, my little baby. And added: “The weight of pregnancy is already hard to bear, but struggling to maintain a balance between life and sport is simply exhausting, even if it was worth it.”

“There were no visible signs”

If Nada Hafez’s pregnancy was a surprise for the public, it was also a surprise for her coach. One of his coaches, French Vincent Anstet, trusted his microphone on July 30. RMC Sports “He did not train with us in July, he mainly trains in Egypt. But it’s true, I haven’t seen him in the African championships for two and a half months. So I didn’t know, he told me after the first game.

According to the coach, if the fencer was able to train and participate in games without revealing her pregnancy, it is more because of her technical than physical characteristics. “His strengths are quite tactical and technical work. She doesn’t have the physique equivalent to the top 16 girls in the world, she doesn’t have crazy speed. That’s why we didn’t feel it was necessary,” he said. According to Vincent Anstet, the fencing outfit did not reveal his stomach either. “There weren’t necessarily visible signs, even on the track, during training.”

“Pregnancy is not a disease”

Surprise quickly gave way to joy. “I was happy for him because it’s still great news,” continued Vincent Anseth RMC Sports. Especially since Nada Hafez performed one of the best performances of his career. “He had just won, beating No.7 in the world, so everyone was very happy in the euphoria. Maybe if he had lost 15-2 in the first round, people’s reaction would have been different. But we cannot say that it was a handicap for him.

If Nada Hafez’s performance at the Paris Olympics is enough to inspire admiration, Vincent Anstett, whose wife is also 7 months pregnant, remembers that pregnancy is “not an illness”. “There are other pregnant women [que Nada Hafez] who is engaged in other professional activities, who has to carry things, who walks a lot… My wife is a liberal nurse, she always continued to work up to seven months, climbing dozens of floors a day, climbing stairs, helping people with the toilet. … That’s just as exceptional.”