Flair Magazine In a sponsorship deal running through to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Arena announced that it has signed the young Egyptian World Championship medalist Farida Osman. Globally, she is mainly known as the freestyle and butterfly sprinter who won the 50m butterfly bronze at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest, and currently holds the African records in 50m freestyle and 50&100m butterfly.
Osman was born in Indianapolis, USA but raised in Cairo, Egypt, where she started swimming at a young age. After taking a break to pursue her synchronized swimming passion, she returned to swimming and made the Egyptian national team for the first time at the 2007 Pan Arab Games in Cairo, where she became the youngest Arab athlete to ever win the 50m butterfly title and break the Arab record at 12 years old.
In 2009 when Osman was fourteen, she competed in her first World Championships in Rome, and then two months later at the Junior African Championships in Mauritius, she won the 50m freestyle, butterfly and backstroke events, setting junior African records in the first two. Farida won her first global title for the 50m butterfly at the 2011 FINA World Junior Championships in Lima, also setting a new championship record in the process. In 2012, she made her Olympic debut in London, and a year later went on to her first World Championship final in Barcelona, where she finished seventh in her signature event, the 50m butterfly. In doing so, she became the first Egyptian to qualify for a final at the World Championships.
Since then Farida’s career path has continued to climb. In Budapest, 2017, she became the first Egyptian to medal at a World Championships, taking the 50m butterfly bronze in a new African record, and in 2018 in Tarragona, Spain, she broke Mediterranean Games records in both her 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly victories.
“Arena is known for supporting the strongest athletes from all over the world, so the fact that I get to be part of that is truly an honor. I’m really looking forward to continue being a leader and inspiring others through this partnership,” said Osman.
After starting out with the Gezira Sporting Club in Cairo, Farida moved to the US, where she trains with coach Teri McKeever at the University of California, Berkeley. At the 2016-17 NCAA Championships, she was one of only three Cal athletes to win individual titles.
As an iconic sports personality in Egypt, she was named the Best Female Athlete in Africa by the Association of National Olympic Committees in 2017. Osman is keen to encourage young people in Egypt and the Arab world to take up swimming, since it “teaches us a lot more than just medals and achievements – a healthy lifestyle, my strengths and weaknesses, how I react under pressure, time management and also builds character.”
Right now, Farida’s short-term vision is concentrated on the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, where she hopes to be able to medal and final in more of her events.
