Sherine El-Zeiny

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.^[3]

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El-Zeiny competed for the Netherlands at the 2004 Junior European Championships and finished sixth with the team.^[4] 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.^[3] At the 2007 World Championships, she finished 91st in the all-around qualifications.^[5]

El-Zeiny represented Egypt at the 2008 Summer Olympics, becoming the country's first female Olympian in artistic gymnastics.^[6][7] There, she finished 61st in the all-around qualifications and did not advance into any finals.^[8] 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.^[9][10]

El-Zeiny helped Egypt win the team title at the 2012 African Championships, and she won a bronze medal on the floor exercise.^[11] 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.^[12][13] After the Olympic Games, she had surgery to repair to injury, and she missed two years of competition.^[14]

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.^[14] 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.^[15]

El-Zeiny won the all-around title at the 2016 African Championships and helped Egypt win the team title.^[16] 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.^[17] At the Olympics, she scored a personal-best 53.232 in the all-around and placed 39th in the qualifications.^[15]

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.^[10] She competed with the Egyptian team that finished fourth at the 2018 Mediterranean Games.^[18] This was the final competition of her career.^[19]