IOC to Consider Iraq Team in Beijing

The government of Iraq stands by its newly installed NOC. (Getty Images)(ATR) Two Iraqi athletes may yet go to Beijing, pending the result of a July 29 meeting between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and officials from the government of Iraq.

"I can confirm that further to a constructive conversation between (on the one hand) the IOC and the Olympic Council of Asia, and (on the other) officials from the Iraqi government, a meeting is scheduled to take place at the IOC's headquarters in Lausanne Tuesday," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies tells Around the Rings.

"If a positive outcome to this meeting is achieved, which the IOC believes is possible from the productive signals it has now received from the Iraqi side, then there may still be a chance for the two Iraqi athletes in athletics to attend the Olympic Games," she concludes. Two of Iraq's would-be Olympians, Haidar Nozad and Hamzah Hussein, continue training in the Tigris river. (Getty Images)

But the IOC and the Iraqi government have little time to maneuver before the Games. Athletics entries are due to BOCOG on July 30; all other names were due last week.

It is not clear what a "positive outcome" may entail. The IOC defends its Iraq ban, the result of a government takeover at the national Olympic committee in May.

"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," reads a letter from the IOC to the Iraqi sports minister sent last week confirming the ban.

Iraq seems equally dedicated to its new NOC.

"There is no review of the government's decision because it was taken in accordance with the law," Youth and Sports Minister Jasem Mohammed Jaafar is quoted in media reports.

Discus Sports briefly made Iraqi streets a place of celebration last year when the country's football team – comprising Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds – won the Asian Football Cup. (Getty Images)thrower Haider Nasir and sprinter Dana Hussain are the athletes whose fate depends on the outcome of the Lausanne negotiations.

"I train every day hoping that things will change positively at the last moment," says Nasir.

Hussain is pessimistic about waiting until 2012.

"With this horrible situation, who is to say I'll even be alive in 2012?" she says.

Written by Maggie Lee

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