Ismail qualified for the women's 100 m breaststroke, as Egypt's only female swimmer, at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. She cleared a FINA B-standard entry time of 1:11.83 from the All-Africa Games in Abuja, Nigeria. She challenged seven other swimmers in heat three, including 15-year-olds Annabelle Carey of New Zealand and Lee Ji-Young of South Korea. She raced to third place by 0.26 of a second ahead of Argentina's Javiera Salcedo, outside her entry time of 1:12.20. Ismail failed to advance into the semifinals, as she placed twenty-eighth overall in the preliminaries.