Let me begin with a minute of silence for Egyptian sports. I’m talking about sports in general since Egypt’s defeats at the Paris 2024 Olympics, which concludes on Sunday, were not restricted to one event but included all individual and team sports.
Let us go back in time and recall the remarks of Mr. Ashraf Sobhi, Egypt’s Minister of Youth and Sports, who projected that the Olympic delegation will return with at least 6-10 medals. Based on this, Egypt sent its largest delegation ever to the 33rd Olympic Games, which took place this year in Paris from July 24 to August 11.
The cost of the preparation and training programme for the participating teams reached 516 million Egyptian pounds, according to the latest statements from the Minister of Youth and Sports. Accordingly, Egypt participated with its largest delegation in history, consisting of approximately 149 athletes and 16 reserve female athletes, in the 33rd Olympic Games held this year in Paris from July 24 to August 11.
Unfortunately, Egypt has only won one gold medal in modern pentathlon, one silver medal in weightlifting, and one bronze medal in fencing as of the time of writing.
Throughout the Olympics, the word “honourable representation” dominated the majority of remarks from the media and authorities in charge of the participating sports federations, who oversaw the preparation and training of the teams and sports for the main event.
Here’s my question: what “honourable representation” are they talking about? What about Morocco’s humiliating 6-0 defeat of the Olympic football team? Or the handball team’s defeat to Spain?
Perhaps they are referring to the “honourable representation” of Egyptian boxer Yomna Ayad, who was disqualified owing to over weight in the 54 kg category, or cyclist Shahd Said, who was disqualified 10 days before the Olympics began. Or perhaps they are referring to wrestler Roman, who was accused of sexual harassment following his defeat against Azerbaijan’s Hasrat Jafarov.
Perhaps they mean fencer Nada Hafez, who surprised the world by competing in the Olympics at seven months pregnant. Or horse rider Nael Nassar, who withdrew because his horse became injured before the competitions began!
This raises a number of important questions.
1. What steps were used to qualify teams and individual competitors for the Olympics?
2. What standards and criteria do the various federations apply when selecting participants?
3. Where is oversight to guarantee that these requirements are really enforced?
4. Will a thorough investigation be conducted, beginning with the Minister of Youth and Sports and including all officials in the Egyptian Olympic Committee and the heads of the sports federations competing in the Olympics, to determine the causes of the decline in technical, physical, mental, and behavioral performance of participants in all individual and team sports?
5. How was the budget set out for preparing the participating teams and individuals spent?
The sports scandal that our athletes experienced at the Olympics should not pass without strict accountability measures.
When discussing growth and structural reform, we must recognise that national success is judged by excellence in arts, literature, and athletics, and Egypt has historically dominated these fields.
The inability of officials to establish a sound sports system in accordance with global standards harms the state’s status in an area that reflects nations’ levels of development and health. It also throws a bad shadow over all other areas of change in other disciplines, putting the country in an unfavorable situation.
If we look at the performance of public authorities, sports officials in Egypt have completely failed in fulfilling the responsibilities entrusted to them, producing widespread dissatisfaction and discontent among everyone.
