Tunisia’s Country Profile
Official country name: Republic of Tunisia
Area: 63,170 sq miles (163,610 sq km)
Population: 10.2 million (2007 est.)
Median age: 28.3
Ethnic Groups: Arab 98 percent, Jewish and European 2 percent
GDP and GDP per capita: $29.7 billion and $2,904 (2006 estimates)
Read a complete country profile of Tunisia
Tunisia’s Olympic History
First time represented at Summer Olympics: 1960
Gold medals won: 2
Silver: 2
Bronze: 3
Athletes at the Beijing Olympics: 28
Number of Sports competing in at Beijing Olympics: 10
Medals at 2008 Beijing Olympics: 1
Tunisia’s Olympic Playbook
Tunisia is hungry for a medal. It hasn’t won one since light welterweight Fathi Missaoui won a bronze in boxing at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, and really hasn’t done much medal winning since attenting these things beginning in 1960. It has one gold, two silvers and three bronze overall, and four of those medals belong to runner Mohamed Gammoudi, one of the few men to medal in both the 5,000m and the 10,000m.
Tunisia is sending a pretty large contingent of 25 athletes to Beijing, but the country’s hopes rest on the shoulders of swimmer Ousamma Mellouli (or Osama, or Usama, depending on your preference). Yes, he was a dope-taker (he just finished serving an 18-month ban from swimming competitively), but then who isn’t in these sports anymore. In 2007 in Melbourne, he came from behind to become Tunisia’s first world champion in the 800m freestyle.
Sure enough, Melloui came through in the 1,500m freestyle.
Melloui is the product of the engineering department at the University of Southern California, but right now “He is the hope of Arab and African swimming, and he enjoys huge capabilities,” says Federation President Abd Jalil Dachraoui said this week. “We are attaching great hopes to Oussama Mellouli.”
Tunisia also hopes its long-distance walker Hatem Ghoula, who won third place in the 20km race in Osaka’s world championship in 2007, can bring home some kind of metal.
Tunisia’s Athletes at the 2008 Beijing Olympics
Boxing
Walid Cherif
Hamza Hassini
Saifeddine Nejmaoui
Mourad Sahraoui
Alaa Shili
Cycling
Chtioui Rafaa
Fencing
Azza Besbes
Ines Boubakri
Judo
Youssef Badra
Anis Chedli
Nihel Cheikh Rouhou
Nesria Jelassi
Chahnez M'barki
Houda Miled
Swimming
Maroua Mathlouthi
Oussama Mellouli (Won Gold in 1,500m freestyle)
Taekwondo
Khaoula Ben Hamza
Tennis
Selima Sfar
Track & Field/Athletics
Leila Ben Youssef
Hatem Ghoula
Habiba Ghribi
Hassanine Sebei
Weightlifting
Khalil El Maaoui
Hanene Ourfelli
Wrestling
Haykel Achouri
Marwa Amri
Naziha Hamza
Adnan Rhimi
