Olympics
At Paris 2024, Israeli and Palestinian athletes joust over Gaza war
As Israeli and Palestinian judoists hit the tatami mats at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, the war raging in their homeland was at the front of their minds.
Two athletes – one from each side – fought and lost to separate opponents.
But once defeated, they gave different messages that highlighted how personal it was for competitors, and how difficult it has been for the organisers to create an Olympic truce after 10 months of conflict between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza.
“I think here at the Olympics, we are here to make peace, but if you are making war in our country and want to make peace here, it’s like you have two faces,” Feras Badawi, one of eight Palestinian athletes at the Games, told reporters having just lost his first round match in the under 81 kg category against Tajik Somon Makhmadbekov.
He said he could never compete against Israeli athletes or shake their hands amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza that has seen at least 39,400 Palestinians killed since Israel unleashed its offensive against Hamas in response to the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people.
Minutes later, in the women’s under 63 kg category, Israeli judoka Gili Sharir was also contemplating her defeat to reigning French Olympic champion Clarisse Agbegnenou, but like Badawi faced questions about the broader political context.
“We can’t ignore what’s going on, we can use it to our advantage. I believe in Israel, I love Israel and it was an honour for me to fight with the Israeli flag on my chest,” Sharir, one of the 88 Israeli athletes in Paris.
She said that as an Israeli athlete she was used to people not shaking her hand, but wished sport could take precedence over politics.
The exchanges at the Champs de Mars arena came after an Algerian judoka was disqualified from a potential match-up with an Israeli on Monday and were the latest example of how the conflict has cast a shadow behind the scenes at the start of Olympics.
The expectations ahead of the Games were that there could be widespread protests on the margins. At events where Israeli athletes competed the concern was that there could be significant actions displaying anti-Israeli sentiment, but that has been sporadic.
Palestinian flags have been waved. Some banners have called for a “Free Palestine” or accused Israel of genocide – a charge Israel rejects.
There have been some vitriolic chants at soccer matches and French prosecutors have opened an investigation into death threats against Israeli athletes, a worrying turn of events 52 years after 11 Israelis were killed at the Munich Games in 1972.
TIT FOR TAT
Verbal jousts have mostly emanated from the respective officials of both delegations as they seek to defend their corners.
At the opening ceremony, Palestinian athletes wore political symbols on their jackets, drawing a rebuke from Israeli officials, who said they had broken the Olympic charter.
From the outset the Palestinian Olympic Committee (POC) sent letters to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Football Federation asking for Israel to be suspended over the war, which it said equated to Russia’s suspension over its assault on Ukraine.
On Tuesday, POC chief Jibril Rajoub, who spent 17 years in Israeli prisons, lambasted what he called the IOC’s double standards for not responding to his letters and ignoring its own charter as he outlined the heavy toll the war had taken on Palestinian athletes.
He accused some Israeli athletes of glorifying the war on social media and in particular targeted Israel’s judoka flagbearer Peter Paltchik over a media post.
“Is he qualified in such a global, international, peaceful, humanitarian event to raise a flag?” Rajoub told reporters. “They should raise a red card to Israel.”
The Israeli embassy in Paris dismissed Rajoub’s accusations calling it a “smear campaign” to “discredit and hurt him using lies and deception”.
At the Israeli Olympic Committee, officials did not mince their words. Speaking to Reuters, Yael Arad described Rajoub as a “convicted terrorist”.
“You know, people can choose who they want to cheer but it’s an outrageous disgrace to use the arena for political or much more for attacks of the Israeli athletes,” she said.
“But we choose to see the good side. We choose to see the Israeli flag which is the biggest and strongest brand of Israel. When we see it we think about prevailing (after) Oct. 7,” the former Olympic judoka said.
-Reuters
Roy Jones Jr has been handed the Olympic gold medal he was controversially denied in 1988 in an extraordinary act of sportsmanship by the South Korean fighter who beat him.
Hall of Fame boxer Jones shared a video on Wednesday from two years ago that showed Park Si-hun visiting the American’s ranch in Pensacola, Florida to present him with the light middleweight gold medal.
“I had the gold medal, but I want to give it back to you. It belongs to you,” Park said in the video through his son, who translated.
Jones, who was overcome with emotion by the gesture, covered his face with his hand before saying: “Wow, that is crazy.”
Their match at the Seoul Olympics remains one of boxing’s most contentious moments as Jones appeared to dominate the fight but lost to Park by a 3-2 decision that drew instant criticism and sparked enduring controversy.
Despite losing the gold medal match, Jones was selected as the Val Barker Trophy winner as the best boxer of the 1988 Olympics.
Jones went on to become a four-division world champion and is regarded as one of the sport’s best pound-for-pound fighters of all time.
“In 1988, I was robbed of the gold medal in what became one of the biggest controversies in boxing history,” Jones wrote in his Instagram post.
“By the grace of God, a couple of years ago, the man who won that medal made the trip from South Korea to my home to return it to me, feeling it was rightfully mine.
“I hope you enjoy this moment as much as I did.”
-Reuters
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U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday creating a White House Olympics task force to handle security and other issues related to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games, an administration official told Reuters.
The task force, made up of members from Trump’s cabinet and government agencies, will coordinate federal, state and local government work on transportation, the official said.
It also will “streamline visa processing and credentialing for foreign athletes, coaches, officials, and media,” the official said in an email.
The United States will host the Olympics in Los Angeles in three years. Trump, a Republican who lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, has expressed pleasure that his second term will coincide with the Olympics and the World Cup.
“During his first term, President Trump was instrumental in securing America’s bid to host the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The president considers it a great honor to oversee this global sporting spectacle in his second term,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Monday.
Last month organizers of the Los Angeles games released the first look at the Olympic competition schedule . The city had also hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984.
“The creation of this task force marks an important step forward in our planning efforts and reflects our shared commitment to delivering not just the biggest, but the greatest Games the world has ever seen in the summer of 2028,” Casey Wasserman, the chair and president of LA28, said in a statement.
–Reuters
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By DAVID LEE
Home is many places for swimmer Adaku Nwandu, who was born in China, lives in Singapore and wears the Nigeria flag on her swimsuit.
And it is at her current home in Singapore that the 17-year-old is making her debut at the World Aquatics Championships (WCH).
In the second heat of the 100m freestyle at the WCH Arena, the teenager, who has a Nigerian father and Chinese mother, led at the turn before finishing third in 1min 0.89sec – she eventually placed 59th out of 82 athletes overall.
After her race, Adaku shared with The Straits Times that she was born and raised in Shanghai, and started swimming when she was eight. Interestingly, it was ice cream that kept her in the sport.
Adaku, who still has the 50m freestyle heats on Aug 2, said: “At a school competition, I didn’t do so well and I asked my dad if we could make a deal. He said if I do better, he would buy me ice cream once every week, and that’s a promise we have kept with each other. And that’s what brought me here.”
In 2023, the family moved to Singapore due to her mother’s work posting. With her fluent Mandarin and love for Asian and spicy food, it did not take long for her to pick up Singlish and enjoy local delights like chicken rice and chilli crab.
She said: “We came here mainly because of my mother’s work, and also because the swimming scene back where I lived in China was a little bit toxic, so she also thought Singapore would be a new experience and better for my swimming.”
By then, she had already committed to representing Nigeria after its aquatics association contacted her after the National Sports Festival in Asaba, where the then 16-year-old was part of the national record-breaking women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team.
But Singapore is where she has been honing her swimming skills, as she has set her 50m and 100m freestyle long- and short-course Nigeria national records at meets here.
Noting her improvements, Singapore swimming coach and performance director Gary Tan said: “Adaku has been participating in our system for a while, and we hope it helps her develop as a swimmer and achieve what she wants while training in Singapore with her school (German European School Singapore).”
For someone who is inspired by Olympic champions David Popovici, Caeleb Dressel and Adam Peaty for “their dedication and the way they are able to take breaks for themselves to improve and get back to the water”, qualifying for Paris 2024 on ranking points was a dream come true.
Her Olympic debut was also unforgettable as her swimsuit ripped 20 minutes before her 50m freestyle heat, but she managed to finish second in her heat and 33rd out of 78th overall in 26.62 seconds, just 0.03 of a second off her personal best.
Back in Singapore, Adaku, who is in the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme at her school, realised that she needed more of such resilience to reach her goals.
The swimmer, who also plays for the school’s volleyball team, said: “I had a lot of improvement the first year I came to Singapore. But this past year has been especially hard for me with family problems and also school. The workload in my first year of IB made it hard to balance training and school.
“Especially in the next year, I want to focus more on swimming and try to get some new personal bests because this year I just plateaued. I’m looking forward to training harder and preparing for my next competition and hopefully qualify for the next Olympics.”
-Strait Times, Singapore
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