Topic: News: Iraq's sole Olympic weightlifter aims to lift country's pain

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Iraq's sole Olympic weightlifter aims to lift country's pain
By Khalil Jalil

Iraq's sole weightlifting competitor Sawara Mohammed had no thoughts of Olympic glory when he began building his powerful physique by shoveling cement at age 13.

He took it up to help support his 10 brothers and sisters.

Mohammed, 26, a short and stocky man, will compete in the 67-kilogram category in the Beijing Olympic Games in August.

He was able to quit shoveling a few months ago after northern Iraq's oldest weightlifting club Arbil in northern Iraq lent its support with a $250 monthly stipend.

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It is nowhere near enough to meet costs but Mohammed hopes that his performance at the Olympics will help ease the pain of his war-ravaged country, whatever his medal chances.

"The lack of financial resources... makes training very difficult," Mohammed, the sole member of Iraqi's Olympic weightlifting team, told AFP.

"If I had only part of what other athletes (in other countries) get, I would be able to get a good result in Beijing," he said, pointing to his torn and tattered shoes in the dingy, dust-filled club in Arbil.

"I just hope that my level of readiness will be good enough so that Iraqis can rejoice, as sport has become the only outlet for enjoyment in this country."

"Even though my chances for a medal are not good, I will feel the spirit of the Olympics and enjoy the historic moment, especially in the opening ceremony," the soft-spoken worker said.

If Mohammed, a native of the mountainous Kurdish region where Iraq's strongmen are said to hail from, wins a medal, he would be only the second Iraqi to do so after weightlifter Abdel al-Wahid Aziz won bronze in Rome in 1960.

The Games open on Aug. 8 in the Chinese capital, and Iraq is sending a team of six athletes under the Olympic flag in lieu of their own after a spat with the International Olympic Committee this month led to the suspension of Iraq's Olympic committee.

The country's athletes have not been spared from the bloodshed affecting the lives of Iraq's 25 million people.

With more than 100 athletes killed since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, Mohammed and five other first time Olympians -- two rowers, a disc thrower, a sprinter and a judoka -- are a bright spot in the war-blighted country.

Yet after five years of fighting and a decade of international economic sanctions imposed prior to that, Iraqi athletes struggle to compete at the international level, hampered by a lack of proper equipment, training and funds.

Many are forced to hold down day jobs as well as seek money from private sources.

With his club's support Mohammed won the 2007 Arab Championship but he recognizes he was lucky to get the opportunity to take part in the Games after a poor showing at the 2008 Asian Championship, an Olympic qualifying event.

He was selected after a doping scandal eliminated teammate Mohammed Aboud, Asia's 2008 silver medallist in the 105-kilogram class and Iraq's best hope in Beijing.

"It's painful for me to see my friend eliminated, I wish he had not used those prohibited drugs, but I'm also pleased to be the substitute," said Mohammed, who only learned of his selection four weeks ago.

But even that fortuitous chance nearly slipped from his grasp when the International Olympic Committee suspended Iraq for "political interference" in its national Olympic committee.

On June 5 the IOC said: "The executive board of the IOC decided today to provisionally suspend the Iraqi national Olympic committee as a consequence of the ongoing political interference by the government within the sports movement in Iraq."

The IOC had warned of sanctions after Iraq disbanded its Olympic committee and other sports bodies on May 21, a decision that threw into doubt Iraq's participation in the Olympiad.

The decision has also left Iraq's Olympic athletes to fend for themselves.

"The attention and the support that athletes at the national level are supposed to get is absent, morally, physically and materially. It has had a huge impact on me," said Mohammed. "I don't even know when I'm supposed to leave for Beijing."

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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International Olympic Committee Bans Iraq From Beijing Games

The International Olympic Committee confirmed its decision to ban Iraq from taking part in the Beijing Olympics because of the government’s interference with sports by disbanding the country's National Olympic Committee, Reuters reported.

"This morning we were informed of the final decision of the International Olympic Committee to suspend the membership of the Iraqi Olympic Committee," Hussein al-Amidi, the general secretary of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, said.

The decision is a major blow to seven Iraqi athletes who hoped to travel to Beijing this summer, AFP reported.

The IOC had warned of sanctions against Iraq after the country disbanded its Olympic committee and other sports in May.

"In spite of all the joint efforts of IOC and OCA (Olympic Council of Asia), over the last months to find a positive solution with the Iraqi government authorities, we regretfully inform you that the decision of the IOC executive board dated 4 June 2008 to suspend the National Olympic Committee of Iraq is confirmed," AFP reported the IOC letter to Iraq said.

"We deeply regret this outcome which severely harms the Iraqi Olympic and Sports Movement and the Iraqi athletes but which is unfortunately imposed by the circumstances," the letter said.

The IOC decision culminates a drawn-out internal feud in Iraq that many see as an extension of Shiite payback to Sunnis who once held a cozy niche in Saddam Hussein's regime.

In May, the government dissolved the National Olympic Committee. Among the claims was it was illegitimate because it lacked a legal quorum — but four members of the committee, including its chief, were kidnapped two years ago and their fates are unknown.

There's also a potential sectarian rift. Iraq's Youth and Sports Ministry is dominated by Shiites, while the NOC includes several holdovers from the Saddam-era Olympic Committee, run by his feared eldest son, Odai.

The International Olympics Committee denounced the order as "serious interference" in what is supposed to be an independent body and demanded the government respect the NOC's autonomy.

"Clearly we'd very much like to have seen Iraq's athletes in Beijing," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said Thursday. "We are very disappointed that the athletes have been so ill-served by their own government's actions."

The Iraqi Olympic team was greeted with a roaring ovation at the opening ceremony of the Athens Games in 2004. That was the country's first Olympics after the fall of Saddam and Odai, who as head of the Iraqi Olympic committee tortured athletes who failed to reach his standards. Iraq's soccer team became one of the feel-good stories of those games when it made a surprising run to the semifinals.

Four Iraqi athletes were expected to compete in non-track and field sports — archery, judo, rowing and weightlifting. Their places will be offered to athletes from other countries.

Iraq's government said after the June 4 suspension it wanted to meet with the IOC "to make its legitimate case."

It said the decision to dissolve the Olympic committee was based on "solid evidence of blatant corruption, lack of legitimate transparent electoral processes and accountability and absence of ratified legislation."

But IOC spokeswoman Davies said Thursday the Iraqi government was asked to Switzerland to discuss possible remedies "but (it) did not positively respond to the IOC's invitation."

She said the suspension destroyed progress made in Iraq's sporting community since the fall of Saddam in 2003.

Iraq's athletes are not the first to miss an Olympic Games because of government interference.

In the most recent case, Afghanistan was prevented from sending a team to the Sydney games in 2000 because of the Taliban regime's intervention in sports administration.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Iraq sends mixed messages on Olympic ban: talks but no compromise

BAGHDAD: Iraq's banned Olympic Committee has opened negotiations to try to regain its place in the Beijing Games after being shutout for political interference in Olympic affairs, a spokesman said Friday.

But a top sports official suggested Iraq was not willing to make the concessions demanded by the International Olympic Committee, which on Thursday upheld its ban imposed after Iraq's government replaced its national Olympic panel with members not recognized by the IOC.

The IOC said the move violated Olympic rules on government intervention — and noted that time is running out to try to salvage even a portion of the seven-member Olympic team for the games beginning Aug. 8.

Jazair al-Sahlani, spokesman for the Iraqi Olympic committee, said "high-level" talks have begun with IOC envoys and international mediators from Germany and China. He declined to give further details, but predicted a deal was within reach.

"We still have the hope the Iraqi flag will fly at the opening ceremony in Beijing," he said.

But Basil Abdul Mahdi, an adviser for to the government's Ministry of Youth and Sport, said there would be "no retreat" in the decision to replace the Olympic Committee.

The government claimed the old panel was corrupt and lacked legitimacy because it was missing too many members — including four members of the committee, including its chief, who were kidnapped two years ago. Their fates remain unknown.

An IOC spokeswoman, Emmanuelle Moreau, said the deadline to finalize athletics competitors is Wednesday and Iraq could field a partial team if the government reverses its decision.

That means two members of Iraq's Olympic team — a discus thrower and sprinter — could still make the games. The door, however, was closed to the others, said Moreau, speaking from IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Iraq rest of the Iraqi team included weightlifting, judo, archery and rowing.

"We would like to see the Iraqi athletes compete in Beijing," said Moreau. "There is a slight opportunity for them provided the government stops interfering and reinstates the National Olympic Committee."

She added: "The ball is in their court, really."

The Iraqi decision and refusal to compromise has angered athletes and risks aggravating Iraq's sectarian rifts. The Youth and Sports Ministry is dominated by Shiites who also control the government. Iraq's Olympic Committee had included several holdovers from the Saddam era.

"I was training very hard to win and get medal in Beijing and hoist the Iraqi flag, but now my dreams had broken," said Swara Mohammed Berbal, 26-year old weightlifter training in the northern city of Irbil.

Iraq has only one medal — a bronze in weightlifting in 1960 — since its first appearance at the Summer Olympics in 1948.

Sarhang Abdul-Khalq, a member of the Olympic committee in Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region, said the "government has cut off the head of sports in Iraq."

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Iraq delegation to meet with IOC Tuesday to save Olympics place

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) -Senior Iraqi government officials will meet with the International Olympic Committee Tuesday to try to salvage the country's participation in the Beijing Games.

A delegation led by government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh will discuss reinstating the National Olympic Committee which was dissolved by the Baghdad government in May, and led to the IOC suspending Iraq from the Olympics for political interference.

Iraq has also verbally committed to a compromise by holding free elections to its national committee under IOC observation.

"Our expectation - and this has been made clear - is that they come to Lausanne to confirm this pledge in person,'' IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said late Monday.

The talks will come 24 hours before a Wednesday deadline to submit competitors' names for the athletics events, and 10 days before the opening ceremony in Beijing.

A breakthrough in Tuesday's talks would allow two Iraqi athletes to compete in athletics events.

Five other Olympics hopefuls in archery, judo, rowing and weightlifting lost their chance to compete when a deadline to select teams for other sports passed on Wednesday with no break in the stalemate.

Basil Abdul Mahdi, an adviser to the Ministry of Youth and Sport, said last week there would be "no retreat'' in Baghdad's decision to replace the disbanded Olympic Committee, which the government claimed was rife with corruption and other abuses.

The IOC has insisted the old committee be reinstated even though four members were kidnapped two years ago. Their fates remain unknown.

A compromise seemed possible when mediators from Germany and China became involved in talks on Friday.

Now Abdul Mahdi is part of the of the Iraq delegation in Switzerland which also includes Sadiq al-Rikabi, a senior political adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

"All being well ... then the two track and field athletes will be able to compete in Beijing,'' Davies said.

[Jim Hooper]

So the IOC kicks out Iraq because it does not like the electoral process in Iraq . . .

Pardon me, but has it occurred to them that the host country is THE COMMUNIST FRIGGIN RED CHINESE???

Did they really dig the Iraqi process under that great Jeffersonian Saddam Hussein?

Only sports bureaucrats could come up with this stuff -- comedy writers and producers would consider it too over the top.

I used to be disgusted, but now I try to be amused.

-- Elvis Costello --

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Australia backs Iraqi Olympic bid

Australia has lent its support to Iraq's 11th hour bid to compete at the Beijing Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee kicked Iraq out of the Games two months ago after the government installed a puppet Olympic committee headed by sports minister Jasem Mohammed Jaafar.

An Iraqi government delegation is due to meet IOC officials in Lausanne overnight to try to broker a solution.

"I hope they succeed," said IOC board member John Coates, who is Australia's chef de mission in Beijing.

Lost opportunities

Five Iraqi athletes have already lost their chance because the deadline for nomination in their sports - archery, judo, rowing and weightlifting - has passed.

But two track and field athletes, both sprinters, still hope to make it.

Mr Coates says dealing with political interference in national Olympic committees was a big issue for the IOC, which held a forum on that issue in Lausanne earlier this year.

"It has to draw a line in the sand at some stage and I hope that it's not going to be the athletes who are penalised.

"I'd love there to be some way for them to compete."

Iraq ended the Olyroos' hopes of a soccer medal in Athens four years ago with a wildly celebrated 1-0 victory in a quarter-final.

Iraq lost to Paraguay in the semis and went down to Italy in the bronze medal play-off, leaving the country's sole Olympic medal as a weightlifting bronze in Rome in 1960.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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IOC reverses ban, says Iraq can go to Olympics

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The International Olympic Committee says Iraq can take part in Beijing Games, lifting its previous ban.

IOC officials say they have reversed an earlier decision because the government has pledged to ensure the independence of its national Olympic committee.

The decision follows last-minute talks Tuesday between Iraqi officials and the IOC in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Iraq is expected to send two athletes to Beijing. Five others lost their chance to go when the final date to select competitors for archery, judo, rowing and weightlifting passed last week.

[Matt Erdman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQliS7EnuV0