Ons Jabeur (Tunisia) – Tennis
A difficult 2024 campaign saw Ons Jabeur battle knee and shoulder injuries, which forced the Tunisian star to pull the plug early on her season, missing the US Open and the Asian swing as a result.
Jabeur dropped in the rankings from No 2 at the start of the year to her current position of 42 but is back on court for the first time since early August, feeling strong and healthy and is ready to climb back up the rankings.
The most successful African and Arab woman in tennis history, can the 30-year-old Jabeur finally taste grand slam glory in 2025, after falling at the final stage on three previous occasions? That’s certainly her ultimate goal!
Kaylia Nemour (Algeria) – Gymnastics
Algerian teenager Kaylia Nemour was on this list 12 months ago as one of the top Arab prospects primed for success at the Paris 2024 Olympics and she certainly delivered, becoming Africa’s first ever gymnast to medal at an Olympic Games, thanks to her gold-winning performance on uneven bars.
Performing arguably the most difficult routine on bars in the history of the sport, Nemour stunned everyone at Bercy Arena with her flawless transitions. Even her opponent, bronze medallist Suni Lee, admitted she was rooting for her.
“I really wanted Kaylia to get a win, just because she’s so incredible. She just flies. She gets up there and just looks like a feather flying over the bar. She’s just so beautiful to watch. Everything goes so fast. It’s so smooth and I’m in awe every single time,” said the American.
Nemour, who turned 18 on Monday, competed for the first time since the Olympics at the Swiss Cup in Zurich in November, where she teamed up with Swiss gymnast Christian Baumann to secure silver in the mixed pairs event.
She recently told Olympics.com that a second appearance at the Games in LA 2028 is the ultimate goal and she hopes to be a contender in more events, not just uneven bars.
Watch out for Nemour at the 2025 World Artistic Gymnastic Championships, which will take place in Jakarta in October and will be an important step for the France-born Algerian on the road to LA 2028.
Amina Orfi (Egypt) – Squash
At just 17 years of age, Amina Orfi is already ranked No 8 in the world on the women’s squash tour.
Five weeks ago, the Egyptian teenager became the youngest player in history to win a Gold-level event when she defeated Hania El Hammamy in the final of the Singapore Squash Open.
Orfi is the reigning world junior champion – a title she has retained for three consecutive years – and is the latest red-hot talent emerging from the squash powerhouse that is Egypt.
With squash set to make its Olympics debut in LA 2028, keep an eye on Orfi, who looks on track to be a serious medal contender at the Games, where she will be just 21 years old.
Amenah Al Muhairi (UAE) – Snowboarding
With one eye on the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, UAE snowboarder Amenah Al Muhairi has a big year ahead of her, starting with next month’s Asian Winter Games.
The 16-year-old was the first Emirati to compete at the Youth Winter Olympics when she participated in Gangwon 2024 in South Korea 12 months ago and is hoping to be part of the UAE’s first ever delegation to the Winter Olympics in Italy next year.
Al Muhairi says the 2025 Asian Winter Games, set to take place in Harbin, China from February 7 to 14, “is the main goal for the season” but she has bigger targets for her future in snowboarding.
“The Olympics is definitely the biggest dream out there, but being one of the top athletes in the industry is definitely a major goal,” she recently told DXB Today on Dubai One.
A 16-year-old Emirati snowboarder? How can one not root for that?
Sanaa Mssoudy (Morocco) – Football
Recently crowned Africa’s Women’s Interclub Player of the Year at the CAF Awards (as well as runner-up in the African Women’s Player of the Year category), Sanaa Mssoudy has been starring for both club and country for several years, winning eight domestic league titles with AS FAR, and one CAF Women’s Champions League crown in 2022, and securing the silver medal with Morocco at the African Cup of Nations in 2022.
The 25-year-old forward/playmaker was named Player of the Tournament at the 2024 CAF Women’s Champions League a few weeks ago, thanks to her contributions to AS FAR’s run to the final.
Mssoudy missed Morocco’s historic run to the last-16 stage at the Women’s World Cup in 2023 due to injury (after helping the Atlas Lionesses qualify for the first time) but is back in the fold with her compatriots and will have many eyes on her at this summer’s Women’s Afcon, which will take place in Morocco from July 5 to 26.
Jana El Alfy (Egypt) – Basketball
At a time when attention on women’s college basketball in the US is at an all-time high, thanks to the star power Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese brought last season, Egypt’s Jana El Alfy is one of the most promising rookies on the scene this 2024/25 campaign.
After spending the entire 2023/24 season sidelined with a ruptured Achilles, redshirt freshman El Alfy finally made her long-awaited debut for UConn – the most successful women’s basketball programme in NCAA history with 11 national championships – in late October, and she had her first start just a few days ago against Providence.
The first ever Egyptian to play for the University of Connecticut, El Alfy is a 6’5” (1.96m) centre from Cairo, who helped lead her country to the silver medal at the FIBA U18 African Championships in 2022, averaging 24.7 points and 11.5 rebounds per game.
In 2023, she represented Egypt at the FIBA U19 Women's Basketball World Cup that was held in Madrid, where she scored 29 in her first game.
While El Alfy hasn’t been getting too many regular minutes on court so far with the Huskies, UConn star Paige Bueckers said on Sunday: “I feel like there’s great things ahead for her.”
As she continues to build up her confidence during these first few weeks on the team, El Alfy will no doubt be one to watch when March Madness comes around.
Asma Al Hosani (UAE) – Jiu-jitsu
After becoming the first Emirati woman to win a gold medal in martial arts at an Asian Games in 2023 when she was just 19 years old, Asma Al Hosni continued to make history in 2024.
At the Abu Dhabi World Jiu-Jitsu Championship in November, she became the first Emirati woman to reach the Professional finals in the brown/black belt category in the 55kg division, by defeating France’s Lina Grosset in the semis.
“I worked so hard to be in this final at this huge championship, competing against the best in the world,” she said after her semi-final victory.
The 20-year-old Baniyas Club player lost in the final to Maria Luisa Delahaye of Commando Group but has shown her true potential over the last two years and is ready to go further in 2025.
Mahira Ali (Egypt) – Football
A year ago, talented midfielder Mahira Ali joined Cairo club FC Masar from Ukrainian side FC Kryvbas and immediately made an impact, scoring a hat-trick on her debut against Ittihad Bassioun.
Ali, 27, helped FC Masar secure the Egyptian league and cup double, before scoring the winning penalty that earned her club the bronze medal at the CAF Women’s Champions League in November.
With FC Masar favourites for silverware once again this campaign, Ali is one to watch, in a squad that features some of the best players on the African continent.
Hana Goda (Egypt) – Table tennis
A familiar name on this annual list, Hana Goda has been setting records and making history in table tennis ever since she was 12 years old, when she became the first African or Arab player to be ranked No 1 in the ITTF under-15 women's world rankings.
After becoming the youngest finalist at the African Championship (at the senior level) when she was just 13, Goda clinched the title in 2023, becoming the youngest champion in the competition’s history at 15.
Ranked 28 in the world, Goda made her Olympics debut in Paris last summer before retaining her African crown in October.
Her biggest moment of 2024 though came in Montpellier, where she stunned world No 6 and tournament second seed Chen Xingtong 3-1 to become the first African player to reach the quarter-finals at a WTT event.
In November, Goda clinched the U19 girls’ bronze medal at the ITTF World Youth Championships in Sweden, becoming the first African or Arab player to achieve that feat in event history.
The Egyptian table tennis prodigy has just turned 17 in December and has her sights set on further success on the professional circuit.
Dunya Aboutaleb (Saudi Arabia) – Taekwondo
Dunya Aboutaleb exploded on to the scene when she clinched bronze at the World Taekwondo Championships in Guadalajara in 2022.
She made history as the first Saudi woman to qualify for an Olympic Games, without the need for a wild card invitation, when she punched her ticket to Paris 2024.
At the Olympics in the French capital, Aboutaleb battled for bronze but lost to the No 7 seed in taekwondo’s -49kg division, just missing out on a chance to become Saudi Arabia’s first female Olympic medallist.
Not long after her defeat, Aboutaleb quickly declared her intention of going for LA 2028 and she went straight back to work.
“This is not the end of the road, this is just the beginning,” Abutaleb wrote on Instagram. “I now close the chapter on the last four years and start today on the road for the next four years.”
Currently ranked No 4 in the world in the -53kg division, she has grabbed gold in multiple events since the Olympics, including the Australian Open in Brisbane in September and the Qatar Open in Doha in November.
The 27-year-old reigning Asian champion is not showing any signs of slowing down and is primed for even more success in 2025.
