The Egyptian lay flat on his back for a moment before rising and standing opposite Sasson in front of the referee. El Shehaby claimed that many sources put pressure on him to forfeit the fight and that he made a decision to compete anyways because he doesn’t mix sport and politics.
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However, new rumours emerged a few days ago, suggesting that Shehaby planned not to shake his Israeli counterpart’s hand at the end of the fight, which is common civility during sporting encounters.
Shehaby did not want to comment on his behaviour afterwards.
Sasson is now set to face France’s Teddy Riner in the semifinals.
The win brought the Israeli delegation a second medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics. After El Shehaby’s snub, the referee called him back to the mat to force him to bow.
“This is something driven perhaps by the Egyptian people, by the Egyptian regime, but it does not look to me like something personal”, he said.
It is customary in judo to both bow to opponents – a sign of respect in Japan – and shake hands after a bout is over, AFP noted. “Politics doesn’t matter when I’m on the mat”.
Sasson, 25, described Friday as “a hard day” after four years of preparation but said he was satisfied with the outcome.
“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”, a spokesman said.
It’s a shame this happened, but kudos to Sasson for handling it like a pro.
However, the International Judo Federation said in a statement to the Associated Press that shaking hands is not mandatory, adding that El Shehaby had bowed instead.
Spokesman Nicolas Messner said: ‘This is already a big improvement that Arabic countries accept to (fight) Israel’.
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Tweet reads: “Joud Fahmy suffered injuries in her hand and foot during training, and the medical committee recommended she not participate in the judo competition in the Rio Olympics today”.
