Israeli judoka Or Sasson won a bronze medal in Rio on Friday, after beating the Cuban Alex Garcia Mendoza in the consolation round in the men’s 100 kilogram plus weight class.
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El-Shehabi refused to shake hands after losing to the Israeli; this was jeered loudly by Israeli spectators.
“Sometimes over the course of such tournaments such things happen, but in general the idea of the Olympics is to build bridges between countries and nations, not destroy them”, the International Olympic Committee added. “There’s absolutely no excuse for it”.
“Shaking the hand of your opponent is not an obligation written in the judo rules”.
“It’s a shame if that happens”, Adams said.
“Egyptian Judoka Islam Shihabi refuses to shake hands w/ Israeli Or Sasson, goes against spirit of #Rio2016”, read the tweet.
While El Shehaby showed poor sportsmanship, there’s a real possibility he felt conflicted about what to do.
“My son, watch out”.
On August 5, the Lebanese refused to share a bus ride with the Israeli team to the opening ceremony, and two days later Saudi Arabian judoka Joud Fahmy forfeited her match against Christianne Legentil from Mauritius, reportedly to avoid facing Israel’s Gili Cohen in the next round. “Egypt will be sad and you will be seen as a traitor and a normalizer in the eyes of your people”.
The Egyptian Olympic Committee warned El Shehaby that his citizenship would be revoked if he withdrew from the bout, but fans still made their feelings known on social media. According to custom, judo players typically bow or shake hands, as a sign of respect in the Japanese martial art. Shehaby was booed copiously by the crowd.
In a Facebook post, journalist Galal Nassar said: “As long as you agreed to play an Israeli champion in the Olympics, you should have exchanged the greeting”.
El Shehaby isn’t the first in this year’s Olympics to have a dispute with an Israeli opponent.
Asked whether the two athletes will shake hands, Hatab said, “the delegation doesn’t allow mixing politics with sports”.
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Egypt was the first Arab power to make peace with Israel, in 1979, but the treaty remains unpopular among many Egyptians.
