Mahmoud Hassan

Mahmoud Hassan took up wrestling at the age of six and won his first Cairo championship in 1934, at the age of 15, in the freestyle, bantamweight division. Egypt did not enter anyone in his event at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, although Ali Erfan represented the country in that category as a Greco-Roman wrestler. Hassan switched to Greco-Roman and, in 1939, defeated Erfan to become Egyptian champion. Unfortunately, World War II occurred at the peak of Hassan’s career, although he continued competing nationally during the conflict and took the featherweight, freestyle title in 1943. Afterwards, he won the 1947 European Championships to emerge as the favorite at the 1948 London Olympics, where he carried his nation’s flag in the Opening Ceremony. In the final, however, he was defeated by Sweden’s Kurt Pettersén, and had to settle for silver. He won gold at the 1950 World Championships and the inaugural 1951 Mediterranean Games, but at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics he withdrew after the first round due to injuries. He retired from active competition the following year and later took up coaching.