Olympic history of Lebanon

LBN

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Lebanon , whose NOK , the Lebanese Olympic Committee , was founded in 1947 andrecognizedby the IOC in 1948, has participated in the Summer and Winter Olympics since 1948. In 1956, Lebanon boycotted the Melbourne Games to protest British-French intervention in the Suez Crisis . 1994 and 1998 one waived participation in the winter games in Lillehammer and Nagano. Young athletes have taken part in all of the youth games held so far in summer and winter.

Overview

Summer and winter games

Lebanon is one of the few countries that made their Olympic debut at the Winter Games. The first Lebanese Olympians on February 2, 1948, were the ski racers Ibrahim Geagea and Munir Itani. The first summer athlete was the freestyle wrestler Abu Rechajle Bechara on July 29, 1948. The first Lebanese woman to take part in the Olympic Games was swimmer Ani Jane Mugrditchian on September 1, 1948. On February 13, 1976, ski racer Farida Rahmeh was the first Lebanese woman to take part in the Winter Games.

The first Olympic team in Lebanon in 1948 in St. Moritz consisted of two alpine ski racers. At the following winter games, Lebanese athletes took part in cross-country skiing (from 1956) and in skeleton (from 2006).

The first Olympic team at the summer games consisted of boxers, wrestlers and marksmen. At the following summer games, Lebanese athletes competed in weightlifting (from 1952), athletics, fencing and sailing (from 1960), cycling and swimming (from 1968), judo (from 1972), taekwondo (from 2012) and canoeing (from 2016) at the start.

In the Greco-Roman style, lightweight wrestler Charif Damage came fourth in 1948. In 1952, the Greco-Roman style wrestlers achieved the first medal wins in Lebanon. Zakaria Chihab won silver in bantamweight, Khalil Taha bronze in welterweight. In weightlifting, Moustafa Laham finished fifth in the middleweight division.

In 1972 weightlifter Mohamed Tarabulsi won silver in the middleweight division. 1980 followed a bronze medal by the wrestler Hassan Ali Bechara in the super heavyweight of the Greco-Roman style.

Youth games

At the first Youth Summer Games in Singapore in 2010 , five teenagers, one boy and four girls, competed in fencing, swimming, judo and taekwondo. The taekwondo in Michel Samaha won the bronze medal in the light heavyweight division.

In 2014 in Nanjing , two boys and two girls took part in swimming, fencing and taekwondo.

Lebanese youth also took part in the Youth Winter Games. A boy and a girl competed in alpine skiing in Innsbruck in 2012 and in Lillehammer in 2016 .

IOC member

The entrepreneur and sports official Toni Khoury was a member of the IOC from 1995 to 2015. His membership ended for reasons of age and has been an honorary member ever since.

Overview of the participants

Summer games

year	Athletes			Flag bearer	sports														Medals
	total	m	w																			total	rank
1896-1936	not participated
1948	8th	8th	0		1	2	5
1952	9	9	0		1	4th	3	1												1	1	2	32
1956	not participated
1960	19th	19th	0			6th	3	2	1	4th	3
1964	5	5	0				1	4th
1968	11	11	0			2	3	1		3		1	1
1972	19th	17th	2	Mohamed Tarabulsi	1	2	4th	1	2	4th		1	2	2						1		1	33
1976	3	3	0			1			1					1
1980	15th	15th	0		2	1		2	2	2		2	2	2							1	1	35
1984	22nd	21st	1	Toni Khoury	1	1	4th	1	3	4th		1	4th	3
1988	21st	19th	2	Toni Khoury	3	1		3	3	2		2	4th	3
1992	12	12	0					1	2	2		2	1	4th	1
1996	1	0	1	Mohamed Al-Aywan												1
2000	6th	4th	2	Jean-Claude Rabbath		1	1	2				2
2004	5	3	2	Jean-Claude Rabbath			1		2				2
2008	6th	4th	2	Ziad Richa			1		2				2	1
2012	10	3	7th	Andrea Paoli			1		2	2			2	1		1	1
2016	9	4th	5	Nacif Elias			1		2	1			2	1		1		1
total																			0	2	2	4th	104

Winter games

year	Athletes			Flag bearer	sports			Medals
	total	m	w								total	rank
1924-1936	not participated
1948	2	2	0		2
1952	1	1	0		1
1956	3	3	0		3	1
1960	2	2	0		2
1964	4th	4th	0		4th
1968	3	3	0		3
1972	1	1	0		1
1976	1	0	1		1
1980	3	2	1	Edward seeds	3
1984	4th	4th	0		4th
1988	4th	4th	0		4th
1992	4th	4th	0		4th
1994-1998	not participated
2002	2	1	1	Chirine Njeim	2
2006	3	2	1	Edward Keyrouz	2		1
2010	3	1	2	Chirine Njeim	3
2014	2	1	1	Alexandre Mohbat	2
2018	3	2	1	Samer Tawk	2	1
total								0	0	0	0	-

List of medal winners

Gold medals

So far (as of 2018) no gold medals

Silver medals

Surname	Games	sport	discipline	annotation
Zakaria Chihab	1952 Helsinki	Wrestling	Greco-Roman bantamweight	together with Khalil Taha first medal win
Mohamed Tarabulsi	1972 Munich	Weightlifting	medium weight

Bronze medals

Surname	Games	sport	discipline	annotation
Khalil Taha	1952 Helsinki	Wrestling	Greterweight Greco-Roman	together with Zakaria Chihab first medal win
Hassan Bechara	1980 Moscow	Wrestling	Greterweight Greco-Roman

Medals by sport

sport	gold	silver	bronze	total
Wrestling	0	1	2	3
Weightlifting	0	1	0	1
total	0	2	2	4th

Web links

• Lebanon in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Lebanon on Olympic.org  - The Official website of the Olympic movement (English)
• Web presence of the LOC

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The ski racer Georges Gereidi also competed in cross-country skiing