<b>Welcome to Abtal, a daily digest featuring all the Middle East and North Africa athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics - every day throughout the Olympic Games</b> Ahmed Elgendy said a conversation with Egyptian football star <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/mohamed-salah/" target="_blank">Mohamed Salah</a> in January has given him extra motivation to secure a historic gold medal when he takes part in the modern pentathlon at the Paris Olympics. Elgendy, 24, made history at the 2020 Tokyo Games by becoming the first African and Arab athlete to win an Olympic modern pentathlon medal. Wearing his silver medal from Tokyo, Elgendy posted a picture alongside the Liverpool star, praising his humility and respect. "Salah is a role model for all of us [Egyptians]. Having a conversation with him, not just taking a photo, is a very big thing," Elgendy said. "We talked about the Olympics and preparations; it was a very good meeting." Read more <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/olympics/2024/07/15/paris-olympics-meeting-with-mo-salah-gives-ahmed-elgendy-fuel-to-go-for-pentathlon-gold/" target="_blank">here</a>. The <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/olympics/" target="_blank">Paris Olympics </a>might be a battle for national glory for many, but for some it is much more than sport. Manizha Talash is one such athlete. Three years after she fled <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/afghanistan/" target="_blank">Afghanistan </a>to dedicate her life to the new Olympic sport of breaking, Talash will be looking to fulfil her dream when she competes at the Paris Games as part of the Refugee Olympic Team. Originally from Kabul, Talash stumbled upon breakdancing, or breaking as it is widely known, through social media just before turning 18. And she immediately fell in love with the sport. “I wanted to do it, I wanted to learn it,” the 21-year-old said. She found a club in Kabul where a dancer from the videos trained. “There were 55 boys, and I was the only girl,” she said. “I told myself, why can’t a girl do this? Read more <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/olympics/2024/07/12/manizha-talash-refugee-breaking-down-barriers-at-paris-olympics/" target="_blank">here</a>. When she was just four years old, living in Casablanca, Noor Slaoui would tell her mother: “I’m going to live where my horses are one day.” “And my mum would say, ‘You’re cute, you know; how are you going to do that?’ So a few too many years later, here am I, and I’m really enjoying that,” the Moroccan rider tells <i>The National</i>. Now 29, Slaoui does indeed live with her horses on a yard she co-owns with her coach and business partner Deborah Fellous in the Cotswolds, about an hour outside of London. They started the business six years ago, producing horses to resell them or enter them in equestrian events. It is how Slaoui finances her own riding career, which has now taken her to the Olympic Games in Paris, where she will make history as the first Moroccan or Arab woman to compete in the equestrian discipline of eventing at the Games. Read more <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/olympics/2024/07/10/paris-olympics-just-the-beginning-for-moroccan-equestrian-trailblazer-noor-slaoui/" target="_blank">here</a>. The UAE will have high hopes of making a mark at the biggest stage as they get ready to participate in the <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/olympics/" target="_blank">Paris Olympics</a>. It will be the 11th Olympics for the nation, having first appeared at the Los Angeles Games in 1984. The country won a first gold medal at the 2004 Athens Games, when <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/other-sport/uae-great-sporting-moments-no-1-sheikh-ahmed-bin-hasher-shoots-his-way-to-gold-at-2004-olympics-1.1051706" target="_blank">Sheikh Ahmed bin Hasher won the men's double trap shooting</a>. Jordan's boxing brothers Hussein and Zeyad Ishaish will set a number of firsts when they lace up their gloves <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/olympics/2024/07/03/paris-olympics/" target="_blank">in Paris this summer</a>. Hussein, the elder of the two at 28, will be competing at his third Games. He reached the quarter-finals at super heavyweight in <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/battered-brazil-vows-spectacular-rio-2016-despite-severe-cost-cutting-measures-1.110105" target="_blank">Rio</a>, where he lost to eventual gold medallist Tony Yoka of France; and the quarter-finals at heavyweight<a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/olympics/2021/08/08/thomas-bach-praises-remarkable-olympians-as-flame-goes-out-on-tokyo-2020/" target="_blank"> in Tokyo</a>, where he bowed out to Brazil’s Abner Texeira, who went on to claim bronze. This summer he will drop down in weight again to compete at light heavyweight (80kg), making him the first man to feature at three separate Olympic boxing competitions all at different weights. He will be joined in Paris by younger brother Zeyad, 25, just as he was in Tokyo three years ago. Imane Khelif is used to overcoming obstacles. Raised in the rural village of Tiaret in western <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/algeria/" target="_blank">Algeria</a>, Khelif excelled at football as a teenager, despite the game largely seen as one not fit for girls. At 16 she would often endure the jealousy of her male counterparts, with some, she says, expressing their frustrations physically. The boys in her village felt threatened and picked fights with her. Ironically, it was her ability to dodge the boys’ punches that got her into boxing. <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/podcasts/abtal/2024/06/24/egypts-maha-amer-on-historic-achievements-and-overcoming-toxic-environments/">Maha Amer on historic success and overcoming toxic environments</a> Athlete opens up about balancing her academic pursuits with a successful career <br/>