Born in Alexandria in Egypt, His first international participation was in 1972 in Czechoslovakia and Spain.
He retired in 1992 and is now member of the Egyptian Judo Federation and an international judo judge.
In 1984, he lost the finals to Japan's Yasuhiro Yamashita, who tore a right calf muscle in the preliminaries. Rashwan stated that he did not aim for Yamashita's right leg because he did not regard that as a fair play, and was subsequently given an award from the International Fairplay Committee.[3]
He also won the gold medal in the heavyweight and open class category in the African Championship in 1982 and 1983.
