Before the Olympics even got under way, Egyptian athletes received the most embarrassing news of their lives when the uniforms they had been given by the Egyptian Olympic committee where found to be fakes. What followed was a series of ludicrous statements by the EOC Chairman made in an effort to absolve himself and the committee from any wrongdoing. “All Nike products are made in China, and have the same logo so how can you know?”
When the reasons for the fake clothing being unable to be distinguished from the real gear were laughed off and brushed aside, a new line of comic relief was put forth by the EOC. “It was the economical choice given the current state of affairs in Egypt.” This statement could hold water if the EOC would reveal to the public the expenses incurred by the EOC delegation that travelled to London. With the history of corruption that exists in Egypt, I’m sceptical that EgyptAir economy class was the preferred mode of transport, or that Holiday Inn was the first choice accommodation. Let alone the near certainty that not every member who travelled had legitimate reason to.
In all this mess however, nobody brought up the most important question. Why did the EOC create a tender in order to buy the clothing in the first place? What should have happened is that the Committee creates a tender for the reverse. Invite all global sports brands to bid for the RIGHT to provide the gear for the Egyptian delegation. That’s how sponsorship works; they pay you. So what reasons did the EOC have for their model? Maybe they wanted everyone to be seen wearing Nike in order to put up a façade of superiority? A type of show off mentality that we can’t deny exists in Egypt. Most likely a series of “Golden Handshakes” were involved in the process, but I’ll leave you to come to your own conclusions.
To make matters worse, on the last day of competition two Egyptian wrestlers had to forfeit their events due to being late, an Olympic first. Where were the coaches? How was it that no one was able to even do such a simple task as to go online and check what time the fight they have been waiting years for would begin.
Poor management is a recurring theme when it comes to our so-called Olympic Committee and federations. These governing bodies are run on a policy of nepotism where being the favourite is all that is required to receive the best training and placement for tournaments around the globe. Unsurprisingly, in many sports one of the athletes will be of some relation to a member of the executive. Regardless of their talent level this individual will get all the support they need at the expense of other individuals who posses a superior level of talent and a much more dedicated mentality. Generations of athletes have been lost due to this treatment and there is no way of telling how far they could have progressed if given a fighting and fair chance.
None of this will change in Egypt unless we, the said upper class, get over this formality that it is “rude to point out corruption” for even the simplest of reasons such as that we personally know some of those involved. And continue to come up with superfluous excuses such as “but he’s a good person” or some other garbage. If we want to succeed then we have to train our best, and clearly our best are not the ones who receive all the training because daddy is the chairman and you want an all expenses paid trip to a tournament in Paris where you can try and bed as many random as you can as opposed to focus on the competition at hand.
