Amro Elgeziry went to the last three Olympics for Egypt. Next year, he will compete for the U.S. Olympic team for the first time.
Elgeziry, a modern pentathlete, qualified for the Tokyo Games by placing fifth at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, on Sunday, according to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Another modern pentathlete, Samantha Achterberg, qualified for the 2020 U.S. Olympic team by taking silver in the women’s event Saturday.
Open-water swimmers Haley Anderson, Ashley Twichell and Jordan Wilimovsky previously qualified for the Olympic team.
Elgeziry, 32, was born in Cairo. He moved to Colorado Springs, site of a U.S. Olympic training center, in 2014 (the year he earned a world silver medal) and married U.S. Olympic pentathlete Isabella Isaksen. Isaksen finished 12th at Pan Ams, missing the chance to qualify for Tokyo, but will get more chances in the next year.
Elgeziry retired from the Egyptian team after Rio to settle into a normal American life with Isaksen, according to USA Modern Pentathlon. But he felt the urge to return, joined the U.S. Army’s World Class Athlete Program (WCAP) and became an American citizen.
Emily deRiel was the last American to earn an Olympic pentathlon medal, silver in 2000. The sport debuted at the 1912 Stockholm Games.
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