Iraqi Athletes Headed to Beijing Olympics

Dana Hussein, a sprinter from Iraq, will be one of two athletes from Iraq competing in Beijing. (Getty Images)(ATR) A sprinter from Iraq and one other athlete will compete in the Beijing Olympics under their own flagnow that a last-minute deal is brokered with the IOC over governance of the National Olympic Committee of Iraq.

Representatives of the Iraq government agreed to end their interference in the affairs of the NOCI in a meeting Wednesday at IOC headquarters in Lausanne. Thedeal calls for a transparent and fair election of a new, independent NOCI by the end of November 2008. With this agreement, the IOC Executive Board is expected to lift its suspension of the committee this weekend when the board meets in Beijing.

The deal-making to keep Iraq in the Beijing Olympics came after a series of phone calls with mediators in the Middle East and Europe late last week. Those talks followed the July 23 deadline for NOCs to submit the names of their athletes for Beijing. With Iraq under suspension by the IOC, no names were submitted, although seven athletes in five sports had qualified for the Games.

The IOC suspended Iraq in June after the government refused to back away from a takeover of the NOCI that installed the minister of sport as the new head of the committee, replacing leaders who had been elected four years ago under a vote that was supervised by the IOC.

The government alleged that the NOC leadership was corrupt, but members of the committee said the takeover was the result of rivalry between the Shiite-led government and Sunnis at the committee.

The leaders of the NOCI have been serving on an interim basis since the disappearance of President Ahmed Al Samarai two years ago, along with secretary general Amin Jabber. They, along with dozens of colleagues, were kidnapped at gunpoint at an NOC meeting by a squad of militiamen.

IOC communications director Giselle Davies tells Around the Rings that oneprecondition of the agreement to restore the privileges of the NOC included new elections, which were to have been held earlier this year. The meeting Wednesday with the Iraq government officials took place at IOC headquarters. (ATR)

“They have also committed to having free NOC elections after the Games under observation of the IOC. Our expectation -- and this has been made clear -- is that they come to Lausanne to confirm this pledge in person,” says Davies about the Wednesday meeting in Switzerland.

The delegation from Iraq included Dr. Ali Aldabbagh, spokesman for the Iraqi government, Sadiq Al-Rikabi, a senior political adviser for the prime minister and Basil Abdul Mahdi, senior adviser from the Ministry of Youth and Sport.

The IOC had sought such a meeting ever since ordering the suspension in early June.

The concord between Iraq and the IOC comes too late for five athletes in archery, judo, rowing and weightlifting, who have missed the entry deadline. For two athletes Iraqi weightlifter Sawara Mohammad is among five athletes who qualified for Beijing who have missed the deadline to register and will not compete. (Getty Images)in track and field, the deadline for their sport comes later this week, in time for them to be registered for Beijing.

The Iraq NOC was suspended in 2003 in response to complaints about torture and other abuses against athletes by the late Uday Hussein, son of the also deceased Saddam Hussein.

But in early 2004, under the backing of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, the IOC and the Olympic Council of Asia, elections were held for a new committee. That led to an Iraqi team competing at the Athens Olympics, including a football team that made the semi-finals, almost winning a bronze medal.

The rise in sectarian violence in 2004 proved costly to Iraqi sport, with more than 100 athletes and officials murdered or kidnapped since then. The IOC, OCA and some NOCs, such as the U.S. Olympic Committee stepped in to provide safe opportunities for athletes to train outside the country.

Written by Ed Hula

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