Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Hadeth south, Beirut Governorate, Lebanon
About Edward Maalouf
- Edward Maalouf (born December 11, 1968 in Hadath, Beqaa Valley, Lebanon) is a Lebanese competitive handcyclist, and the only person to have won medals for Lebanon at the Paralympic Games.In 1995, while at work, he fell from the sixth floor of a building in Beyrouth, and was left paraplegic.
- In 1997, he began to train in disability sport.
- In 2006, he won the handycle marathon in New York City.
- In 2007, he won silver in the disability cycling world championships in Bordeaux.
- Later that same year, he won the European Handbike circuit, and the Beyrouth handcycle marathon.Maalouf won the international handcycle marathon again in 2008, and came third in 2009 after rupturing a tyre and having to spend about two minutes replacing it.In 2008, he took part for the first time in the Paralympic Games in Beijing.
- This was Lebanon's second participation in the Games.
- Its first, in 2000, had been disappointing.
- Lebanon had been represented by two sprinters in athletics (T44 category).
- One, Hussein Ghandour, had been a non-starter in the men's 400m race, while the other, Mahmoud Habbal, had failed to finish his race in the 800m.
- Lebanon was absent from the 2004 Summer Paralympics, and sent Maalouf as its only competitor to the Beijing Games.
- To prepare himself, Maalouf underwent intensive training in the Netherlands, and was accompanied by two Dutch coaches in Beijing.
- He was, unsurprisingly, his country's flag bearer during the opening ceremony.He competed in two events: the time trial and the road race, both in category HC B - B being "for athletes with complete loss of lower limb function and limited trunk stability".
- In the time trial, he was one of fifteen competitors, and finished third with a time of 22:12.91 - 0.85 seconds behind Vittorio Podesta of Italy.
- Heinz Frei of Switzerland won gold in 22:06.23.
- Maalouf had thus won his country's first Paralympic medal.
- In the road race, he was again one of fifteen competitors, and again won the bronze medal.
- His time of 1:28:26 was just one second behind Heinz Frei's winning time (1:28:25), and was identical (within a second) to that of silver medallist Max Weber (of Germany).Maalouf later said that he had been exhausted during the second race.
- He went "straight to the hospital" afterwards, and was diagnosed with a blood infection.
- He then spent four months in hospital.After the Games, he also stated that he had received very little support from the Lebanese authorities.
- They had provided him, he said, only with plane tickets and a tracksuit, and he had received no official recognition -other than congratulations from the Lebanese ambassador to China- after his performance.He competed again as Lebanon's sole representative to the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, taking part in two road cycling events.
- This time, he did not win a medal.
- In the men's road race H2 he was lapped and eliminated.
- In the men's time trial H2, he finished ninth (of fourteen), in 30:01.34, well off his result four years earlier.
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