Abla Khairy

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Abla Khairy ( Arabic عبلة خيري, DMG ʿAbla Ḫairī ; born 1961 ) is an Egyptian long-distance swimmer who was the youngest swimmer to cross the English Channel from England to France in 1974 at the age of 13 .

Life and sporting success

Abla Khairy comes from a sports-loving Egyptian family. She is the youngest of three daughters. Her mother Inas Hakky Khairy was the first Egyptian short-distance swimmer in the 1950s and had made an unsuccessful attempt to cross the English Channel. She encouraged all daughters to emulate her, but only Abla showed an interest in sport.

At the age of five, Abla Khairy started swimming at the Gezirah Club. She trained successfully and later became a member of the Egyptian national team because of her achievements . In 1974 she took part in the annual International Nile Competition and took second place. Encouraged by the Egyptian Swimming Association, she began to prepare to cross the English Channel. She trained six hours a day. In August 1974, as a 13-year-old, she crossed the English Channel from Dover (England) to Cap Gris-Nez (France) in 12 hours and 30 minutes and beat the previous record of the 14-year-old Leonore model by three hours.

A year later, Khairy repeated the traverse , taking ten hours, 52 seconds to complete the 21.5 mile distance.

In 1976 Abla Khairy tried to swim the English Channel there and back. However, after 25 hours, Khairy broke off three miles from the target and was taken to the hospital.

Khairy works as Head of Process Development at Commercial International Bank and no longer does sports. She is married and has two daughters.

Award

For her performance as a swimmer, Abla Khairy was awarded the First Class Order of the Republic of Egypt for Sports by President Anwar al-Sadat .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Anthony Hogan: Abla: Queen of the Nile. Saudi Aramco World, May 1975, accessed September 20, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b Amany Aly Shawky: Abla Khairy and the English Channel. April 19, 2011, accessed September 20, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Quinn Fitzgerald: Abla Adel Khairy Strokes Forward Towards The Future. April 21, 2011, accessed September 20, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Khairy, Abla
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Egyptian swimmer
DATE OF BIRTH 1961