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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 16 - 22 November 2000 Issue No.508 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 16 - 22 November 2000 Issue No.508
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Time to face the music
By Inas MazharIf Egyptian athletes in the Sydney Olympic Games felt bad after their extraordinary inept performance, they are about to feel worse.
Minister of Youth Aliyeddin Hilal is about to lower the boom on the players who left the Australian city empty-handed. At a press conference on Sunday at the headquarters of the ministry, Hilal announced that the ministry had studied a report presented by the National Olympic Committee (NOC) concerning the Games, the results and the performance and was close to meting out punishment as well as rewards for those who did comparatively well. Based on the findings of the report, in addition to the information presented by the head of the delegation to the Games, Essam Abdel-Moneim, Aliyeddin said the ministry would meet presidents of the federations before taking any fateful decisions.
"The ministry needs time to study the reports and meet with the officials in charge before making the right decisions," the minister said.
"We are not looking for a scapegoat, nor do we intend to turn the public against the players," Aliyeddin said. "However, we do not intend to let this pass. We decided that we will no longer accept the lame excuses given to us by some officials. Everyone knows that defeat doesn't mean failure because sports is a matter of winning and losing. But we should learn from our mistakes and concentrate on our weak points. That's why we decided to reward the winners and penalise the losers."
The losers to be investigated are to be found in fencing, volleyball and cycling. Egyptian fencers came in last, the volleyball team lost every match, winning just one set in the process, and cyclers ended up far behind the pack.
"We will give these federations a month to present their case," Aliyeddin said, presumably before the axe falls.
One player already blacklisted is Saleh Andre Sakakini who will be banned indefinitely from all international equestrian events "because he has not achieved any remarkable results."
Weightlifting will be investigated after a female player fainted in Sydney and was thus unable to compete. It was rumoured that the player in question married before travelling to Sydney and that pregnancy caused her September swoon.
The Athletics Federation will be asked how did long jumper Hatem Mersal keep an injury to his leg a secret.
Taekwondou, which was supposed to give Egypt a sure medal, and gymnastics will also come under the microscope. And a big question mark hovers over an issue which has rarely come up in Egypt: doping. More than one incident was reported in the boxing and wrestling camps.
Spared the rod was handball, shooting, rowing and swimmer Rania Elwani. The handball team came seventh, having predicted an eighth place finish. Two out of the eight shooters and the rowing team kept their pre-Olympic promises. Elwani came in 11th place after her federation said she would do no better than 13th.
Aliyeddin said funding training camps in Egypt and abroad had become exorbitant and had not achieved the desired results. He said bidding for hosting international championships in Egypt, hiring foreign coaches and combating steroids and doping were among controversial issues discussed in the NOC report.
"We discovered that the main problem is not in the athletes but in the system itself," Aliyeddin said.
While that evaluation is open to question, one decision already taken is not open to debate. "Only teams expected to win medals will participate in international events," said the minister. The rule will be applied starting in the 2001 Mediterranean Games in Tunisia.
He said that within three months all federations will be notified of the decisions to be taken and that a new plan of action to improve Egyptian sports will be distributed to them for consideration.
The minister added that by 2003, "We will start to achieve what we are aiming for."
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Over with a spectacular bang 5 - 11 October 2000
We came, we saw, we came back 5 - 11 October 2000
Fish out of water 5 - 11 October 2000
Handball heartbreak 5 - 11 October 2000
The invisible people21 - 27 September 2000
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