Egyptian swimmer Marwan El-Kamash will be leaving the post-grad training group at Indiana, and in fact will be leaving the United States altogether. The move comes in spite of success in the pool, which includes setting Egyptian National Records in both the 200 and 400 free at last year’s World Championships. Rather than by choice, per se, sources tell SwimSwam that he’s leaving because his visa to stay in the United States has expired, and he has been unable to get it renewed.
El-Kamash says that he’s leaving for the Mediterranean Games and then will head to Italy for the Sette Colli Trophy in Rome. After that, he will have a test period with the Energy Standard Swim Club, which trains a number of pros from around the world. Among the swimmers that the team currently lists are Chad le Clos, Sarah Sjostrom, Ben Proud, Cameron van der Burgh, Kliment Kolesnikov, and Canadian Marie-Sophie Harvey.
That team is headed by former British international James Gibson with Tom Rushton and Petro Nagornyi as assistants.
El-Kamash started his collegiate career at South Carolina, where he was an All-American, before transferring to Indiana for his senior (athletic) season in the summer of 2016. At Indiana, he won more All-American awards, finishing 7th in the 500 free as a senior in 2017.
At last summer’s World Championship meet, El-Kamash finished 9th in prelims of the 400 free, missing qualifying for the final by .22 seconds (3:46.36). The 8th-place swimmer in that prelims race was American Zane Grothe, with whom El-Kamash has been training at Indiana.
El-Kamash qualified for the semi-final in the men’s 200 free with a 1:47.40 in prelims and finished 16th overall with a 1:47.41 in the semi-finals. That made him the only Egyptian male swimmer at Worlds to advance beyond preliminaries of any race (Farida Osman won bronze in the 50 fly on the women’s team).
Bummer. Elkamash brothers pretty much own the Egyptian Swimming Federation. I predict seeing Marwan in the top 8 for the 400 in the next Olympics. Make Egypt Great Again.
what a shame
He should go to one of the French squads .
Josh Bratter, Esq., who was featured a few weeks ago on your site, couldn’t help him? Seems strange that such a great swimmer couldn’t get his visa extended, unless it was some sort of political move. It’s a real shame.
we love u marwan
Well that’s a bummer he was really inlined for greatness this summer …sad
Make Egypt Great Again.
How very sad! I enjoyed cheering for you and meeting your lovely mom and brothers. Good luck Marwan!
Make Egypt Great Again!!