Morocco’s Country Profile
Official country name: Kingdom of Morocco
Area: 172,414 squ mi (446,550 sq km), slightly larger than California
Population: 33.8 million
Median age: 24.3 years
Ethnic Groups: Arab-Berber, more than 99 percent
GDP and GDP per capita: $58 billion and $4,600
Read a complete country profile of Morocco
Morocco’s Olympic History
First time represented at Summer Olympics: 1960
Gold medals won: 6
Silver: 4
Bronze: 9
Athletes at the Beijing Olympics: 49
Number of Sports competing in at Beijing Olympics: 7
Medals at 2008 Beijing Olympics: 0
Morocco’s Olympic Playbook
When it comes to Africa, the continent has one Olympic superpower: South Africa, which has won itself 72 medals, including 20 gold and 24 silver, despite being banned from the games from 1964 until 1992 — seven Olympic Games in all. South Africa aside, the continent has two rival powers: Egypt and Morocco. Egypt is in second place in the medal count, with 21, Morocco in third with 19, though this could be the year that Morocco moves ahead.
There’s a certain cockiness to the Moroccan strut into Beijing. The Moroccan ambassador in Beijing went as far as saying that he expects several victories. The sense of entitlement may reflect the fact that in the last three summer games, going back to Atlanta in 1996, Morocco has taken in 10 medals, including two golds, while Egypt managed just half that total, and all of it at the last Olympics in Athens, where Egyptians can be excused for having felt somewhat on their home turf (Egypt having been more Greece than Egypt for a few hundred years in its past).
Morocco’s strength is in track and field, what the Moroccans and most of the world call Athletics. This time around, preparation is playing a role, too.
"In the past, we waited until the last minute to look for athletes and we would send them to participate in the Olympics without any efforts to prepare them," Hasan Botkiout, manager of national teams for the Ministry of Youth and Sports, said . The government chipped in money and facilities. “In 2004,” he continued, “we drew up a plan for permanent and continuous preparations for Moroccan participants in athletics. In this framework, Morocco established a specialised centre for training athletes and preparing them throughout the year. This policy was successful in athletics, so the government decided to broaden the experiment to include other sports, such as cycling, boxing, taekwondo, judo, wrestling and weight lifting.”
So watch out Egypt. Second place in the African Olympic bragging rights is up for grabs, and the men and women of the Maghreb are lunging for it.
Morocco’s Athletes at the 2008 Beijing Olympics
Archery
Khadija Abbouda
Boxing
Mohamed Amanissi
Mohammed Arjaoui
Redouane Bouchtouk
Mehdi Khalsi
Hicham Mesbahi
Driss Moussaid
Abdelillah Nhaila
Mahdi Ouatine
Said Rachidi
Taha Tamsamani
Fencing
Ali Xavier Lahoussine
Aissam Rami
Judo
Younes Ahmadi
Safouane Attaf
Mohamed El Assri
Rachid Rguig
Swimming
Sara Elbekri
Taekwondo
Mouna Benabderrassoul
Ghizlane Toudali
Abdelkader Zrouri
Track & Field/Athletics
Mariem Alaouiselsouli
Mohammed Amyn
Youssef Baba
Hasna Benhassi
Yassine Bensghir
Yahya Berrabah
Tarik Bouguetaib
Chakir Boujattaoui
Abderrahime Bouramdane
Bouchra Chaabi
Mouhssin Chehibi
Mohamed El Hachimi
Abdelaziz Ennaji El Idrissi
Hamid Ezzine
Abdellah Falil
Jaouad Gharib
Abderrahim Goumri
Abdelkader Hachlaf
Siham Hilali
Abd Alaati Iguider
Amine Laalou
Btissam Lakhouad
Asmae Leghzaoui
Mourad Marofit
Mohamed Moustaoui
Hanane Ouhaddou
Anis Selmouni
Brahim Taleb
