International Women's Day 2024: Egypt's Hadia Hosny breaking down walls as parliamentarian, lecturer, and retired badminton athlete
The three-time Olympian, who competed at the 2008, 2012, and 2020 Olympic Games for Egypt, speaks exclusively to Olympics.com about blazing a trail for women in sport in her role on the Sports and Youth Committee in the Egyptian Parliament.
"Girls can do anything. They can play anything. They can be champions."
Hadia Hosny is emphatic as she speaks from the heart to Olympics.com about an important topic for her: the participation of women in sport in her native Egypt.
A three-time badminton Olympian who competed at Beijing 2008, London 2012, and Tokyo 2020, Hosny now works as a university lecturer, badminton coach through her academy, and perhaps most importantly, as a member of the Egyptian and Pan-African Parliaments.
It's through her role as a parliamentarian that she hopes to make an impact in improving the gender balance in sport in her country, region, and continent.
"Gender equality is getting better," she acknowledges. "You will see many girls competing from Arabic and African countries. For example, Egypt last time in Tokyo 2020, the only gold medal was from a girl in karate – the only gold was for a girl – and we had also two more medals, also from girls.
"I see it's getting better in the main cities, in the big cities, but in rural areas, they still have this mentality of not sending their girls to practise sports. So, I think awareness campaigns are really very important in such areas for such families."
Hadia Hosny's journey in badminton
But how did Hosny even get here? Sport runs in her family, so perhaps it was no surprise that she would become an elite athlete.
"My [great-uncle] from my mother's side, he's the first Olympic gold athlete in Egypt," she reveals. "El-Sayed Nosseir, my mum's uncle. I always dreamt to just go to the Olympic Games because of him… He was the first gold medallist. And when I go to the National Olympic Committee Museum, I find his pictures, his medal, everything."
After making it to Beijing 2008 and London 2012 as a singles player, Hosny considered retiring. That was when she opened her badminton academy in Egypt, which has grown exponentially in the more than a decade since.
"In 2012, I didn't make up my mind whether I will continue in badminton or I will just coach. So I said, okay, I will start my academy. I wanted to inspire a lot of girls and boys, of course, but mainly I wanted to inspire a lot of girls. And now I'm really happy that I can see many of them growing up and becoming champions.
"I started seeing the kids who were five and six years old. Now they are winning some tournaments. And this was my dream, to promote badminton and have a lot of champions later on and maybe world champions one day.
"When I started, badminton was not popular. We had no experience in badminton, but now there are many talented players."
But the academy didn't quite satiate Hosny's appetite for the sport. "I had to be back before (Rio) 2016, but I did not qualify," she says. "I said 'maybe I just have to continue until 2020 to try another round of the Olympic Games'.
"I thought, I just have to continue, I have to commit, and I have to follow my dream to go to a third Olympic Games. Finally, I qualified to Tokyo 2020, and it was a dream for me to be in my third Olympic Games. And it was in a different field because I played singles in 2008 and 2012, and in 2020 I tried in doubles. That's what kept me motivated, actually: I had to achieve my dream. Whatever happened, I had to."
Hadia Hosny: Changing Egypt and Africa from a different role
But even as Hosny was busy competing in her final Olympic Games in 2021, she had already been given a different direction in life: one as a politician, trying to change things for the better.
Her journey to first the Egyptian and then the Pan-African Parliaments had begun six years earlier, when she was selected for a women-only seat in the national legislative body but was not elected.
"I lost in 2015, then in 2020 I was [elected] to the Egyptian Parliament," she shares. "I was also chosen to be in the African Parliament in 2021."
It's in that role that Hosny is trying to push for changes.
"I want to help as much as I can through my position in parliament in the sports and youth committee," she says. "I want to help spread badminton in the whole country, to have more Olympians and world champions in badminton."
"Don't stop at any challenge": Hadia Hosny's advice
Incredibly, Hosny also wears other hats, including lecturing at a university and being a mother to a toddler. She also holds a Ph.D. in pharmacology.
"I'm proud of everything I did. But of course, going to three Olympic Games and being the African champion in different disciplines, I am proud of this. I am also proud of finishing my Ph.D," she reflects.
It does mean, she admits, that she can't devote as much time directly to her academy – although it is in good hands. "I don't go to the academy that much, of course, but there are coaches and so on. I go to [support] them in tournaments, to cheer for them.
"I go to the Parliament now mainly. And I teach, two or three lectures per semester at the university. And I have my baby.
"I would love to stay a role model for the whole kids and for my daughter, of course. And to inspire, as much as I could, the kids in the academy, in my family and everywhere."
As such an inspirational woman, what advice does Hosny have for the next generation of girls in Egypt hoping to follow in her footsteps?
"My message to them is, don't shy away from any challenge," she emphasises. "Challenges will be [many], they will face so many problems, but they have to put in their mind that they have a dream to achieve and they should do anything to achieve this dream."