A lot of athletes move from breaking records to helping others do the same, but only a few set regional standards doing so. For Nadine Wissam, an Egyptian artistic swimming Paris 2024 Olympian, the equation was simple: build her presence as an athlete, then build Africa & the Middle East’s first special-needs artistic swimming academy: Special ArtSwim.
Med-school student by day and athlete by night, the 20-year-old’s journey with ‘Special ArtSwim’ started on her way back from the 2024 Paris Olympics, where she represented Egypt’s artistic swimming national team in the team and duet categories.
“I realised how much I love my sport and I took a decision to make the thing I love most accessible to everyone in order to allow more people to be able to experience this kind of love and passion,” Wissam said.
She set her mind to make artistic swimming accessible to all, regardless of their challenges or different scopes of abilities, with an academy built only on inclusion and love for the sport.
The first spark for the academy then came to life, and Nadine immediately started building her sports leadership capacities. She completed an International Olympic Committee (IOC) course on working with people of different cultures and backgrounds, as well as being selected for the IOC’s Young Leaders programme. Together, they taught her how she can advocate for doing sports for good through the academy.
Partnering with Jacqueline Simoneau, a three-time Canadian Olympian and artistic swimming world champion, she then started learning more about adaptive sports and the different techniques she can teach potential swimmers. The ArtSwim dream started getting closer.
“As soon as I had all my resources ready and all my research was done, I started with one athlete at Gezira Sporting Club for a month. I tried all adaptive training techniques until I found new ways to coach certain movements and worked really hard to create a program that we can work with long term,” she elaborated.
By January 2025, the academy was all set with a team of 6 coaches, all chosen based on what the academy stands for: passion, selflessness and kindness. One thing was clear: at Special ArtSwim, everyone has an opportunity to shine.
With personalized programmes, the academy became more of a family, built on a bond where coaches get creative with their coaching strategies and communications methods for each and every swimmer.
But starting off was no easy path, especially being the first of its kind in the region. They struggled with stereotypes doubting what special needs swimmers can accomplish, and a general lack of awareness and resources. However, Nadine felt that “building something new always comes with uncertainty.”
Until now, they have performed with the attendance of the President of the Egyptian Special Olympics, members of the Egyptian Paralympic Committee and the Egyptian Artistic Swimming Federation.
Most notably, the academy presented the first ever adaptive artistic swimming duet in Africa and the Middle East, during a friendly artistic swimming national competition at Gezira Sporting Club.
“We want to inspire people to believe in inclusion, to support one another and to recognize that with passion and the right support system, barriers can be broken and new paths can be created for future generations,”