After the International Olympic Committee had planned a proposal to ban Kuwait from the Olympics again, Kuwait finally amended its sports law to suit the committee’s standards. Details of the changes weren’t released though. But Kuwait’s Olympic committee chairman Sheikh Ahmad Al Sabah assured athletes they will now be able to compete under Kuwait’s flag.
Read more here
Photo is from the London Olympics 2012 via Arab Times
Not even 6 months have passed since the Olympic ban on Kuwait from 2010 was lifted. And here it happens again. And for the same exact reason.
Why? Because the International Olympic Committee doesn’t like the fact that government officials in Kuwait can interfere in the elections of sporting organizations. And can you blame them really?
The previous ban was lifted after Kuwait offered guarantees to put an end to governmental interference in the Olympic Movement in the country. The deadline was set to be on 22 Nov 2012. But the commitments have not been fulfilled.
A proposal to re-apply the suspension of the Kuwait Olympic Committee will be presented next month to the International Olympic Committee in a meeting that will decide the fate of the Kuwaiti Athletes in the future Olympics, including the coming Rio Olympics 2016.
If the proposal was applied the Kuwaiti athletes will be barred from Olympic funding and Kuwaiti official will be banned from attending the Olympic events and meetings. Read more here.
(Click on the image to watch the video)
I know the Olympics are over but I just found a video that shows the actual race in which Kuwaiti Runner Mohammad Al-Azemi was disqualified. It was round 1 of the men’s 800m.
The Olympics committee disqualified Kuwaiti runner Mohammad Al-Azemi (black shorts & blue t-shirt) from the 800m race for “obstruction” of Polish runner Marcin Lewandowski (red shorts & white t-shirt).
Both runners finished the race. Al-Azemi came 3rd and qualified for the semi-finals. He was later surprised with his disqualification decision.
And even though the Polish runner finished the race last, he was put through to the semi-finals instead of Al-Azemi. “He was pushed by Al-Azemi and lost his pace” a statement said.
I kept rewinding the video over and over to see where the action happened. It seems like it did just 1 second before the video starts. You can see something isn’t normal in 00:01, the Polish runner immediately starts slowing down afterwards. That was definitely not a push though. Al-Azemi did a great job. Tough luck.
Fehaid Al-Deehani has just won his second bronze medal and Kuwait’s second Olympic medal ever. Congrats Fehaid and Kuwait!
See all the results for Shooting/Men’s Trap here
Unfortunately non of the Kuwaiti athletes brought home any medals so far. But there are still 4 chances until 7 Aug so let’s stay optimistic.
The most who I’m personally counting on would be Fehaid Al-Deehani. He has been doing really well so far. Ranking 4th in Shooting/Men’s Double Trap, only one rank away from a bronze. He still competes today at day 2 of the qualifications for Shooting/Men’s Trap scoring 74 so far, with the highest score being 75 and belonging to an Australian athlete. I hope he keeps up the great work until the finals!
UPDATE: Fehaid has ranked 2nd in the qualifications and made it to the finals won Bronze!
It’s also worthy of mentioning that Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiya won bronze in Shooting/Men’s Skeet. Congrats!
The empty cells are obviously for upcoming games, will fill them up once the results are out. You can check on the athletes yourself here
Fehaid Al-Deehani carrying the Kuwaiti flag.
Shaikh Ahmad Al-Fahad cheering for team Kuwait.
And Faye Sultan (photo is by Omarker)
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