Iraq Banned From Olympics
Iraq Athlete Fans
The Olympics are something most athletes only dream of competing in. The elite few who do qualify spend months training and preparing. However, for seven Iraqi athletes, all of that preparation was in vain; they've been banned from the Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee formally banned Iraq from competing, siting political interference as the cause. The committee sent a letter to Jassim Mohammed Jaffer, the Iraqi sports minister, explaining their ban.
The ban is a result of the Iraq's government's decision to discontinue Iraq's Olympic committee, and form a temporary committee to handle the duties of the other committee. Iraq officials stated they banned the committee because of unfair meeting practices, and because not all members of the committee lived in Iraq.
A spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee, Emmanuelle Moreau, stated that Iraq had removed elected officials from their Olympic committee and replaced them with unfamiliar people, practices the International Olympic Committee could not allow. The Iraqi committee had also been late, and missed a deadline Wednesday for athlete submission information.
This may be politically inconvenient for the two committees, but the Iraqi athletes are the ones who will truly suffer. Abdul Rahma, a sprinter coach, commented on the issues. "I wish from the bottom of my heart they would reconsider this unjust decision, for the sake of the athletes," he says. He described one of his sprinters, Dana Hussain, as being a total emotional mess. He said she has been "crying for about two hours now. She hasn't stopped. It's like finding out that a close relative has died." With such dramatic circumstances, who can blame her?
