Weightlifter belatedly becomes Egypt's first-ever woman Olympic medalist

Weightlifter Abeer Abd al-Rahman became the first-ever Egyptian woman to win an Olympic medal this week, after three athletes had their medals stripped away by the International Olympic Committee [IOC] for doping.

The IOC disqualified all of the top three medalists in the 2012 Olympics women's 75kg competition: Kazakhstan's Svetlana Podobedova, Russia's Natalya Zabolotnaya and Belarus' Iryna Kulesha for taking performance enhancing drugs.

Abd al-Rahman, 24, came in fifth place at the London games, however, following the disqualifications she now has taken home the silver medal.

"I feel like this is a dream. Me, my husband and my family haven't been able to sleep since we got the news that I have become the first Egyptian woman to medal at the Olympics. I thank God for this blessing," Abd al-Rahman told local media.

The weightlifter, however, said that she will not be taking part in this year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and has given up her sport.

"After the London games I didn't feel appreciated by any officials in the ministry of sport, Olympic Committee or the weightlifting federation so I decided to quit," she said.

	Since 2012 Abd al-Rahman has stopped weightlifting [Getty]

Abd al-Rahman was dramatically injured during her historic performance in London when she dropped a 151 kg bar on her chest, while on her last shot at lifting the weight.

The surprise medal comes amid a Russian doping scandal that has seen hundreds of athletes being banned from this year's games.

The entire Russian weightlifting team is at risk being banned from Rio because of the large number of failures in retests from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

Earlier this month, Egyptian weightlifter Tarek Yehia was also awarded a belated Olympic medal after another Russian competitor tested positive for a banned substance.

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