Rania Elwani may be sports minister

A member of the International Olympic Committee and the board of directors for renowned Egyptian football club al-Ahly, Dr Rania Elwani, is pipped to become the new sports minister under new Prime Minister Hisham Kandil's new cabinet. Elwani is currently in London, attending the 2012 Games. Former frontrunner and Ahly player Hady Khashaba was ruled out along with the former director of Ahly and Enppi, Alaa Abdel Sadek, reinforcing Elwani's chance of clinching the top sports job in the country. "I prefer not to comment on the issue now," said Elwani when contacted by Arabstoday. The IOC member was the most prominent candidate promoted to head the national sports council in the former cabinet headed by Kamal Ganzouri, but Imad Banani was chosen at the last minute.  Elwani (34) has considerable experience despite her young age. She was the first Egyptian, African, and Arab swimmer with two gold medals in the Mediterranean games since 1951, in addition to winning 77 international, African, and Arab medals. She was classified among the world's 11 best swimmers in 100m races, and the first Egyptian swimmer to break the one minute limit in 100m freestyle. On the administrative level, she was appointed by the general assembly of Ahly, one of the biggest Egyptian and Middle Eastern clubs, as a member of its board of directors for two terms. She was also chosen as a member of the Egyptian Olympic committee and in August 2004 was elected to the IOC where she has worked hard in reinforcing relations with sport ministers and international unions of different games across the world. She is also a member of the medical anti-doping committee WADA Elwani said earlier that though she welcomed a job in the sports ministry, she was not pursuing any specific position and was willing to serve Egypt in any capacity.