Abouelkassem qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics and entered the individual foil event in the round of 32, defeating American Miles Chamley-Watson 15-10. He had the same result against Peter Joppich of Germany and Andrea Cassarà of Italy in the round of 16 and quarterfinals respectively, before moving on to defeat Choi Byung-Chul of South Korea 15-12 in the semi-finals. Abouelkassem lost the gold medal match 13-15 to Lei Sheng of China, but the silver medal he won was the first Olympic fencing medal for a competitor representing an African nation. He also participated in the team foil event, where the Egyptians were eliminated by the British team by a score of 45-33 in the opening round.