Farida Semeika is considered the name of one of the most prominent streets in the Heliopolis area in Cairo, so this name is known to a large number of Egyptians and his family had a palace called Semeika Palace – in Mataria – before being replaced instead by the Mataria Club.
But perhaps the majority of those who know the thick unique name do not know who that person is? Or that he held two Olympic medals for Egypt, or that he was killed in World War II.
Farid Semeika died at the age of 36, but he is nevertheless among the three Egyptian athletes who achieved two Olympic medals for Egypt, and he is also the only Egyptian to have achieved an Olympic medal in scuba diving.
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Foundation
Farid Bassili Semeika was born on June 12, 1907 in Alexandria to a father who works as customs director and an Armenian mother.
Farid enrolled in an education appropriate for his social class and mastered the English and French languages.
As a thick kid, he managed to swim and scuba dive in his childhood, and participated in show jumping in the beaches of Alexandria as he was a fan of flying and got his license.
In 1926 Farid Semeika traveled to his brother in the United States of America in order to complete his studies.
Thick’s brother was working as an Egyptian diplomat in America during that time.
This did not affect Farid Thick’s passion for diving, as he participated in the American Championship and won second place in the escalator competition.
Olympic Gold Pull
Farid Semeika continued his diving brilliance even when he moved to America and trained under the leadership of an American coach before deciding to participate in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics.
Farid thick thickened the 1928 Olympics competitions under the Egyptian flag.
Prior to the Amsterdam Olympics, Egypt participated in three Olympics but without achieving a medal.
During the Amsterdam Olympics and before the start of diving events, Egypt succeeded in winning two gold medals through Mr. Naseer in weightlifting and Ibrahim Mustafa in wrestling.
Fareed Semeka starred during the Olympics and won two bronze medals, the first in the 3-meter escalator, and the other silver – was gold at first – in the 10-meter competition for the fixed ladder.
Farid had won the gold medal with steady peace competitions until he received the medal and the Egyptian national anthem was played.
But after two or three days, he was withdrawn from it and obtained the silver after American diver Betty Desgarens’ representatives objected to the result, which proved her total points to exceed Farid thick.
After that, the competition rulers met to vote on the decision, and 4 out of 5 chose the American victory, with Farid to be second, while only one referee chose Farid thick and outperformed the American.
Farid Semeika finally accepted the result and informed the jury that he would come to the next edition of the Olympics to win the gold medal after he handed it to them and received the silver.
But despite accepting the decision of the jury, Farid, thick coach, James Ryan rejected that and threw the chair in the pool angry and addressed the jury accusing them of choosing the other player because he is a white American and insisted on his return again to win the gold with a non-white champion.
Achievements and retirement in the glory of glory
Farid continued his studies in America with his diving brilliance and was awarded the American Championship more than once.
In 1932 he finished his studies and won the title of world diving championship and won more than one international championship.
Despite his brilliance and that he did not exceed 25 years, Farid Semeika decided to retire from the game and dedicate himself to performances around the world.
Farid and his colleague Harold Smith traveled around the world to hold dual diving shows.
After a while while in America, he acquired American citizenship, but he nevertheless returned to train the Egyptian diving team in 1935.
Farid Semeika was the coach of Egypt’s diving team in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
Hollywood
Thick went to work in “Hollywood” and was participating as a doubler in the dangerous viewing of a number of films, most notably two models and Seas Beneath.
He also participated in his leaps in two diving documentaries in 1939 and 1941.
He appeared thick in the two documentary films with his character, which is “double diving” and “water sports”.
World war
Farid Semeika did not forget his attachment to aviation, so he joined the American army in 1942, and after passing the test he got the rank of second lieutenant because of his previous knowledge of aviation.
Farid Semeika worked as a co-pilot with the US Army and was going to explore some sites.
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Thick mode was not confirmed in World War II specifically, but some historical books have shown that he was an aerial photographer for Japanese sites.
Thick disappeared in 1943 suddenly with his plane, to be considered missing and captured by the American army in the hands of the Japanese.
The US military initially thought that Farid had been killed in North Africa by German or Italian forces and informed his son of this, which was discovered to be a mistake after that.
Sami Lee revealed the famous American diver that he discovered the death of Farid Semeika by accident after the commander of his air squadron met a hospital and informed him of the occurrence of an American Olympic swimmer in the hands of the Japanese, accompanied by Fareed Semeika in the same concentration camp.
He explained to me that he had found a number of beheaded heads that the Japanese had hung on the walls of the camp to scare the Americans and get acquainted with them at the head of his friend.
Sami told me the Fried family was thick and the US government considered him a martyr of World War II and honored him with a military decoration.
Sami Lee
A Korean-born American diver was born in 1920 and was a friend of Fred Thick.
Lee met thick with one of their coach James Ryan, and Sammy Lee showed signs of anger at his coach’s rebuke.
At the time, he informed thick of his colleague about the reason behind that, and he told him the story of withdrawing the gold medal from him in the Amsterdam Olympics and that his coach was angry with the jury and informed them that he would return as a non-white champion to win the gold medal.
And Sami repented to me that he would be that hero, and revealed to me that thick was his inspiration.
Indeed, Sami Lee succeeded in winning the Olympic gold medal, and that was twice, first in London 1948 and the second in Helsinki in 1952.
Lee became the first Asian American to win a gold medal in the history of the United States, and he also became the first diver to be crowned with two Olympic golds, respectively.
Sources:
– The Olympic’s Most Wanted book
– Sammy Lee’s interview with the Los Angeles Times
– Unique thick page on IMDB Technical website
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