The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has said it is investigating why the Algerian women’s goalball team failed to arrive in Rio in time for matches against the United States and Israel.
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“I wonder why the team would boycott the Paralympics tournament that it has prepared so hard for and which the Algerian state has spent so much money on”, spokesman Abdelkader Kelfat told the AFP news agency.
It has led to rumours that their absence was due to efforts to bypass an encounter with Israel, who they were due to face yesterday.
“The Algerian women’s goalball team have arrived”, IPC spokesperson Craig Spence said on Sunday.
“We’re still working with the Algerians on whether they can give us a sensible explanation”.
But the IPC has opened an investigation due to suspicions that the seven members of Algeria’s goalball team deliberately didn’t show in order to boycott their second-round match against Israel.
“Even if you caught a boat from Poland to Brazil you still could have got here in time”, Mr Spence said. It does not take six days to come to Rio.
Goalball is played by visually impaired athletes, who compete in two teams of three players with a ball containing bells.
“It is a great shame that politics has also seeped into the Paralympics”, the paper quotes the head of the Israeli Paralympic Committee, Danny Ben-Abu, as saying.
He said: “From the moment a team enters the stadium with its national flag, it is committed to perform against every country”, he said.
AUSTRALIA’S women’s goalball coach has slammed rival Algeria for “embarrassing” the Paralympic movement with a first-round forfeit suspected to be fuelled by long-running political tension.
“They’re still sticking to their story that they have suffered some of the worst transport issues known to man”, said Craig Spence, the IPC’s communications director.
In the meantime, both the U.S. and Israel have been awarded a 10-0 win and three points each for the unplayed matches.
During last month’s Olympics, Middle East politics also spilled over when an Egyptian judo athlete was sent home after refusing to shake the hands of an Israeli opponent.
Both the USA and Israel were awarded 10-0 wins by default in the matches that Algeria missed. Shehaby backed away when Sasson offered his hand and he only bowed when the referee called the 34-year-old Egyptian back to the mat.
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Rio organisers said Shehaby’s conduct was “contrary to the rules of fair play and against the spirit of friendship embodied in the Olympic values”.
