Richard Mourjan – The First Lebanese Canoeist to take part in the Olympic Games

Rio is the proud host of the 2016 Summer Olympics and Lebanon is represented by 8 athletes this year covering seven different sports:

Mariana Sahakyan (female) – Table tennis
Ray Bassil (female) – Shooting
Chirine Njeim (female) – Marathon
Elias Nacif (male) – Judo
Anthony Barbar (male) – Swimming
Gabrielle Doueihy (female) – Swimming
Mona Shaito (female) – Fencing
Richard Mourjan (male) – Canoe

Lebanon has only missed 1 Summer Olympic Games back in 1956 (it was a boycott) but has yet to earn a medal since the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Moscow. We have exceptional athletes competing this year so let’s hope they end the dry spell and bring back at least one medal!

Chirine Njeim is the first lady to represent Lebanon in the Marathon distance

I will keep you posted with further updates as soon as the games start. I tried looking for schedules on the Rio 2016 website but couldn’t find anything. I couldn’t even find our athletes’ names there.