Swimmer Farida Osman Thought She Was Going to Olympics, But She Won’t

Odd situation prevents former Cal swimmer Osman from competing in her fourth Olympics for Egypt

Farida Osman during the 2020 Olympics, held in 2021. / Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports

Two-hundredths of a second and the misinterpretation of the rules by Egyptian officials apparently are keeping former Cal swimmer Farida Osman from participating in her fourth Olympics.

Osman had already attended a special event at the French Embassy in Cairo in June to celebrate Egyptian athletes that had qualified for Summer Games in  Paris. She was told she had qualified.

Then, earlier this month she issued this statement, according to The National:

“Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, I am sorry to announce that I will not be part of the Egyptian delegation participating in the Paris 2024 Olympics,” said Osman in an Arabic statement posted on her social media.

Osman is probably Egypt’s most famous swimmer and she won Egypt’s first-ever medal in the World Aquatic Championships when she finished third in the 50-meter butterfly in 2017. And it appeared she would be going to the Summer Games for a fourth time until a rules interpretation ended that.

First of all, her best time in the 50-meter freestyle during the qualifying period was 24.72, which is 0.02 of second shy of the Olympic A qualifying standard of 24.70 for Olympic qualification.  However, that time qualifies under the Olympic B standard, which the Egyptian officials believed applied to Osman, who said she received confirmation from the Egyptian Olympic Committee that she would be headed to Paris.

But a new Olympic rule passed in 2022 slightly modified the Olympic B standard to qualify, saying the universality – or Olympic B – standard can only apply to athletes for two Olympics. Since the 29-year-old Osman had been to three Olympics, she no longer was eligible for the Olympic B standard qualification.  The rule was misinterpreted by Egyptian officials, who thought she was still eligible for the Olympic B standard qualification. (Click here for The National report that provides details on the issue.)

Of course, if she had a posted a qualifying time two-hundredths of a second faster she would have qualified for the Olympics anyway and the new rule and its misinterpretation would not have mattered.

Osman had continued to train at Cal this season before learning she would not be going to Paris.

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