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Political Issues
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TheArab States have tried to form unions of several non-political organizations. Sport has been one of the main activities used to unify Arabs. Several tournaments and games were created to let Arab participate in sports, in an effort to bring the members of the Arab world closer to each other.
ThePan Arab Games were created in 1953 with a grand opening inAlexandria, which hosted the first Games; the games were supposed to take place every four years, like theOlympic Games. Several political problems have made this difficult. The Games included most of the same events as the Olympics.Egypt, with 985 medals over the years, is the leader in medal wins, followed bySyria with 692 medals, thenAlgeria with 624 medals.Mauritania andComoros are the only two Arab States that never won a medal in the games.
In nearly 100 years of Olympic competition, the combined tally of medals won by all Arab countries is 73. At 22 countries, the Arab nations constitute almost 11 per cent of the total number of participating nations (204). However, the average number of medals won - 3.48 medals every four years - has been uninspiring. In the2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, for example, Arab countries won only 10 of the 929 medals available - a little over one per cent.
Though the modern version of the Olympic games began in 1896, it was not until 1912 that Arabs appeared on the international sporting scene. Egypt became the first Arab country to send an Olympic delegation - fencerAhmed Hassanein - to the1912 Summer Olympics inStockholm.Sixteen years later, Egypt won its first two gold medals, in weightlifting and wrestling, and a silver and bronze in diving at the1928 Summer Olympics inAmsterdam. Since then it has maintained its competitive edge over other Arab countries and leads the Olympic chart among Arab nations with a total of 23 medals.
In the2008 Summer Olympics inBeijing, Egypt sent the largest Arab delegation of more than 100 athletes competing in handball, field hockey, badminton, synchronised swimming, judo, boxing, taekwondo, athletics, fencing and the pentathlon.
The1984 Summer Olympics (Los Angeles) marked a watershed moment for Arab athletics whenMorocco'sNawal El Moutawakel became the first Arab woman to win a gold medal,[citation needed] participating in the 400m hurdles.
Fellow countrymanSaïd Aouita also brought home the gold in the 5000m men's marathon.Moroccan talent continued to emerge asHicham El Guerrouj returned from the 2004 Athens Olympics with two gold medals in the 1500m and 5000m races. Morocco is second to Egypt with 19 Olympic medals.
Four African and four Asian members of the Arab League have qualified to theFIFA World Cup.Morocco advanced to the Semi Finals in 2022.
TheUnion of Arab Football Associations, established in 1974, organizes theArab Nations Cup andUAFA Club Championship.
African members of the Arab League have hosted 12 editions of theAfrica Cup of Nations, with another scheduled for 2017:
Meanwhile, Asian members of the Arab League have hosted five editions of theAFC Asian Cup:
The2022 FIFA World Cup was held in Qatar.2021 FIFA Arab Cup was also held in Qatar as a prelude to the World Cup.[2]
The2030 FIFA World Cup is set to be held in Morocco.[3]
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