Soumaya Bousaid
Born with a congenital visual disability, Soumaya Bousaid is a disabled Tunisian athlete. She began athletics at the age of 25 and was soon competing in her first Paralympic Games in Tokyo in 2008. At her first Games, she won two gold medals in the 800 m and 1500 m events. In 2011 and 2015 she was crowned world champion. In 2016 in Rio, she repeated her feat and won a third gold medal at the Paralympic Games. Now aged 43, Soumaya's success in disabled sport makes her a model of determination and success.
Farès Ferjani
"It's like water, it's like milk, fencing is part of life."
Born in Tunis in 1997, Farès Ferjani is a Tunisian sabre fencer. His two brothers are fencers, and his father is a fencing referee. He began his sporting career in 2013, and it was in 2015, at the age of 18, that Farès won his first medals at the All-Africa Games. That same year, he became the first African athlete to reach the semi-finals of the Youth Olympic Games in fencing. He was also a double medalist at the 2015 African Championships. He competed in his first Olympic Games in Rio in 2016 without much success. Thanks to countless hours spent training and perfecting his technique, Farès dominated the continent in his category, winning 5 gold medals in the individual and team events at the African Championships in 5 years. Since 2017, he has been training in New York. Farès is now ready to take on the Olympic challenge in Paris 2024.
Oussama Mellouli
"On average, I swim 90 km a week.”
Oussama Mellouli is a world-renowned Tunisian swimmer. He was born on February 16th, 1984, in Tunis. In a country where swimming was not a major sport, he became a champion in both pool and open water. After his first Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000, he made his name for the first time at the 2003 World Championships, winning a bronze medal in the 400 m medley (4 min 18 s 21) at the age of 19. He was voted best Tunisian sportsman in 2003 and 2004.
Olympic and world champion in the 1,500 metres freestyle in Beijing in 2008 and Rome in 2009, he became the first Tunisian Olympic swimming champion and the second gold medalist after Mohammed Gammoudi in 1968. At the London 2012 Olympic Games, he won gold in the 10km open water event and bronze in the 1,500m freestyle. Mellouli is the most successful Tunisian athlete in the history of the Olympic Games, with two gold medals and one bronze.
