Iraq will be allowed to compete in next month's Olympic Games in China after agreeing to restore its independent national Olympic panel, the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday. The IOC said it lifted its ban on Iraq's athletes, clearing the country to send two track competitors to the games in Beijing. Because of deadlines for competitors to enter the games, five other athletes Iraq had planned to send won't be allowed to compete, the IOC said. However, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said at least three and as many as five of the athletes may eventually be allowed to compete.
The IOC barred Iraq from participating in the games last month, saying Iraq violated Olympic rules on government interference by disbanding the country's independent National Olympic Committee, or NOC, in May and replacing it with one headed by a government official. In June the IOC had suspended Iraq for "political interference" in its NOC which was sacked in May and replaced by a new panel headed by Iraqi Youth and Sports Minister Jassem Jaafar. The Iraqi government had said that the previous Olympic committee was sacked because of "solid evidence of blatant corruption, lack of legitimate transparent electoral processes and accountability." It said the committee had an insufficient quorum and had failed to hold elections in more than five years. After the IOC met with Iraqi officials in Switzerland on Tuesday, the parties agreed to restore Iraq's committee. The deal will allow Iraq to hold elections for its Olympic committee "no later than the end of November 2008," an IOC statement said. The two athletes cleared by the IOC to compete in Beijing are a female sprinter and a male discus thrower, an Iraqi Olympics official said. The other five athletes Iraq had wanted to send are an archer, a judoka, a weightlifter and two rowers. The IOC said a deadline to enter athletes for non-track-and-field events was July 23. The deadline to submit track athletes is the end of this month.
Basam Ridha al-Husseini, an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, last week defended Iraq's decision to disband its NOC, saying it was guilty of documented corruption. Iraq's minister of youth and sports, Jassim M. Jaffer, said last week that the IOC had failed to take into account Iraq's reasons for disbanding the NOC. Rogge, in the IOC's statement Tuesday, said he commended "the government of Iraq for reaching an agreement that serves the long-term interest of Iraqi athletes." The Beijing Games open on August 8. [End of report]
It is certainly a welcome news, particularly for the Iraqi athletes who have been training very hard for the Olympic Games even though there is only a few of them. When I heard about the news that the Iraqi team will be banned from the Olympic Games, I felt sorry for those athletes. I mean, try to imagine how did they feel when they knew that after all the preparations that they have done and the sacrifices that they have made to get them ready for the Games, they are being told that they would not be able to participate in it. I think they would definitely felt devastated. I'm not sure if the initial decision to ban the Iraqi team was fair. If the Iraqi's claim that their National Olympic Committee had elements of corruption in it, it would be fair to say that the NOC deserved to be punished, but when you disband it entirely and replaced it with one headed by a government official, it is understandable to see why the IOC thought that there might be some 'political interference' going on in the organisation. The IOC's charter does not allow political interference. But that is all over now, the Iraqi team will be allowed to participate in the Games now and I think it is only right that the IOC reversed its decision to ban them.
I think it is every athlete dream to represent their country and play in a big event such as the Olympic Games which does not happen every year and the fact that the Iraqi government was willing to fight the ban so that their athletes are able to compete in the Games shows how much they want to be part of the Games and how much it really means to them. I dont know if you have seen one of their athlete on the news before. Her name is Dana Hussain and she is a sprinter. When she heard about the ban, she cried for hours. I've been following her preparation for the Olympic for a long time now and I really admire her because of her strengths and motivation to do her country proud despite all the difficulties she faced from the people in her country itself. I have even heard she had receieved death threats before but that didnt stop her from participating in the Games. So you can imagine how devastated she was when she heard about the ban. However, thanks to the outcome yesterday, she can now get back to what she do best and Im going to look forward to her participation. Just for your information, this is not the first time that a national team was ban from the Games. Back in 1992, during the Winter Olympics, the Yugoslavia team was banned but it did however send individual athletes without raising the national flag though. In fact, Iraq had also been banned before in 1990 during the Saddam Hussein-era because of the invasion of Kuwait. It wasn't exactly the Olympic Games, it was the Asian Games, which was an-Olympic related event. The same thing wont be happening to the team this time though.
The Olympic Games will start soon, next week, August 8 to be exact. I'm not a big fan of the Olympics to be honest but I hope our Team Singapore can bring some medals home and make us proud. All the best to Team Singapore and let's hope the Olympic Games will be a great one.
*The report was taken from CNN.
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