Prior to Ahmed and Abdelrahman’s medals, Egypt’s last weighting medal had come in 1948.
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Chinese weightlifter Xiang Yanmei survived a nasty collision with the bar to win gold in the women’s 69-kilogram class on Wednesday.
“I saw little stars all of a sudden”.
Ahmed becomes the first female to officially win an Olympic medal since Egypt first participated in the games at the 1912 edition in Swedish capital Stockholm.
The silver medal went to Kazakhstan’s Zhazira Zhapparkul with a 259 total, while Egypt’s Sara Ahmed won bronze with 255 kilos, becoming the first woman from an Arab country to win an Olympic weightlifting medal.
“But I was the first to be on the podium”, smiled Ahmed, who said she took up weightlifting after being introduced to the sport by her brother.
“I don’t know what will happen when I get home off the plane”, she said, smiling nervously. The 18-year-old is also Egypt’s first female medalist in its 104-year history at the Olympics.
Two weightlifters are also likely to be given Olympic medals after their challengers at the 2012 London Games were suspended in June and July over doping charges.
Xiang was attempting to lift 118kg on her final attempt in the snatch when she dropped the barbell on the back of her head, jerking her neck forward and drawing gasps from the crowd.
It was China’s fourth weightlifting gold medal of the Rio Olympics.
She appeared unhurt however and brushed off the incident to register 145kg in the clean and jerk.
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“I don’t think they should have been competing”, Beauchemin-Nardeau, who put her career as a doctor on hold to train for Rio, told The Associated Press.
