orty-four medals, sixteen of them gold: the Moroccan National Olympic Committee closed the books on the twentieth Mediterranean Games on Thursday, September 3, on the evening of the closing ceremony in Taranto.
One hundred and eighteen athletes entered across eighteen sports earned Morocco seventh place in the overall standings. The flag was carried at the closing ceremony by Yassine Hssine, crowned over 100 and 200 meters, and Fatima Ezzahra Birdaha, champion over 5,000 meters and in the half marathon.
The previous record went back to Oran in 2022 and stopped at thirty-three medals; the record for titles, ten, had stood since Tarragona in 2018. Both fell in the same week.
It is the breadth of the table rather than its summit that stands out: the haul came from ten disciplines, where Morocco’s great Mediterranean harvests used to rest on middle-distance running.
The kingdom has contested these Games since Beirut in 1959, and its count now stands at three hundred and twenty-two medals.
Photo: New2021, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Comité national olympique marocain — communiqué “Taranto 2026 Mediterranean Games: Morocco Concludes a Historic Edition”, 3 September 2026.
International Committee of Mediterranean Games — “Souad Elhaddad secures Morocco’s 300th medal at the Mediterranean Games”, 1 September 2026.
