Meet Mohammed, The Man Racing to Win Palestine's First Olympic Medal
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| Mohammed training on a less than World-Class track in the West Bank (Credits: Al-Jazeera) |
When Mohammed set out on his journey to win an Olympic medal for his home country Palestine, he knew it would be no easy task. Growing up in Palestine, it is nearly impossible to transform oneself into a world-class athlete given the inadequate facilities and limited access to training resources. While watching the 2012 Olympics as a student in Birzeit University, Mohammed decided that he wanted to be the first man to ever bring gold to Palestine. He decided he would train to compete in the 100 meter and 200 meter track and field sprinting event. With little prior experience to sprinting, Mohammed set out on his journey as many aspiring Olympians would, on Youtube. The only track he had access to was at a local Ramallah high school, hardly Olympian caliber. He began training 4 years ago but quickly found out that the lack of coaching, equipment, and track facilities would make bringing home a medal nearly impossible. Since Palestine's acceptance into the IOC in 1995, they have sent 22 athletes (including at this year's games). Not one has even came close to a medal. Mohammed hopes to end this drought and put Palestine on the map in terms of athletic success. After a successful fundraising campaign, Mohammed gathered enough money to travel to Texas and train at a proper track and field training ground at Rice University. Having overcome the problem of proper training resources, Mohammed ran (excuse the pun) into a new issue: time. By the time he had the opportunity to train in Texas, it was already January, only 6 months away from the Rio Games. The Olympic qualifying standard for the 100 m event is a max time of 10.16 and for the 200 m event is a max time of 20.50. After 6 months of intense training, Mohammed was a couple seconds short of the qualifying time (his best was at 11.3), meaning he would not be able to compete at the summer's Olympics in Rio. Although his chances of making the Rio 2016 Olympics were busted, Mohammed refused to let his dream die. He remains determined to qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and continues to hold on to his dream of winning Palestine's first Olympic medal. I first came accross this inspiring story scrolling through Facebook and finding an NBC report on Mohammed's goal of reaching the Olympics. I was immediately drawn to his unwavering determination to accomplish such a difficult task and further reasearched his story. Having been covered by major media outlets including NBC, Aljazzera, Al-Monitor, and others, I was shocked that I had not come across his story sooner.
1. Ahmed Gebrel- Men's 200m Freestyle Swimming:
2. Simone Yacoub- Lightweight Judo:
3. Miri Altrash- Women's 50m Freestyle Swimming:
4. Mayada Al-Sayad- Women's Marathon:
5. Mohammad Abu-Khosa- Men's 100m Track and Field:
6. Christian Zimmerman- Equestrian Individual Dressage:
For Palestine, the Olympics is a rare opportunity to showcase the resilient Palestinian spirit on an International stage. Although sports is not a major focus in politically unstable regions like Palestine, it still acts as a unifying force transcending both politics and religion. Palestine has not had the most successful sporting history, the peak coming in 2014 with the Palestinian National Football Team clinching the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup. Nevertheless, I remain optimistic that Palestinian athletics will only move forward with time. This optimism takes the form of determined individuals like Mohammed Al-Khatib, fighting for a chance at Olympic glory.
2016 Olympic Controversy: Arab Athletes snub Israel
This year's Olympics has had it's fair share of controversy regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict. So far there have been 4 separate incidents in which Arab athletes have refused to acknowledge Israeli athletes. Firstly, the entirety of the Lebanese team refused to ride to the Opening ceremonies in the same bus as Team Israel, marking the first incident of hostility in this years games. Later this week, Egyptian judoka Islam El Shehaby was defeated by an Israeli judoka and refused to shake his hand after the match. Soon afterwards, a Saudi Arabian woman competing in Judo dropped her upcoming fight against an Israeli athlete, citing her reason as an "injury". It remains unclear weather she had a legitimate injury or dropped the fight because partaking would act as an unofficial means of recognizing the State of Israel. Reactions to the hostility has been mixed. On one side, people have praised these athletes for their sacrifice in order to prevent recognizing Israel. On the other side, these athletes have been severely criticized for blending politics and sports while painting a negative image of Arab athletes. I personally agree with the latter. The Olympics is a chance for a country to prove itself on the world stage no matter their political or economic situation. If a South Korean and North Korean athlete can put their differences aside to unite in a now-famous selfie, there should be no reason why Arab athletes don't show utmost sportsmanship regardless of their opponent. I personally feel conflicted showing support of these defiant Arab athletes because the sense of hypocrisy that could be attributed. This hypocrisy would stem from the fact that I have previously written about Israel's constant targeting of Palestinian football players and refusal to allow them to travel for matches. I called for a complete divide between politics and sport, and the current situation is no different. Sport is such a powerful tool of unity, providing a medium to bridge the gap between athletes regardless of race, gender, political association, or economic situation. By snubbing Israel at this year's games, Arab athletes are only painting a self-destructive image that will only strengthen the victimizing of Israel in mainstream media. As for Islam El Shehaby's refusal to shake hands, I feel no sympathy for his immediate sending home and removal from the Egyptian Olympic Team. If he felt that passionately about refusing to recognize Israel, he would have been better off not fighting the match or better yet, not participating in the Olympics. To show up to the match, lose, and then refuse to shake an opponents hand, he has shown nothing but a sore-loser attitude. I will always hold on to my belief that sport and politics should never be intertwined, regardless the circumstances, and hope that Arab athletes hold themselves to a higher standard in the coming future. Rather, these athletes should follow the example set by Yusra Mardini, the young Syrian swimmer competing for the Refugee team, and Ahmad Abughoush, they Jordanian-Palestinian that won Jordan's first ever Olympic medal. Arab athletes have the ability to change our damaged reputation and there is no better stage for that than the Olympics.
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| El-Shehaby's infamous refusal to show the expected sportsmanship of an Olympian |
