BAGHDAD: Day after day, Iraqi weightlifter Safaa Rashed Aljumaili hits a worn-down Baghdad gym to train for the 2020 Olympics. But despite all his grit, politics could keep him from competing.
The single air conditioning unit in the dilapidated facility is out of service, leaving Aljumaili to pump dumbbells and loaded bars with little relief from the crushing 45-degree heat of the Iraqi summer.
The gym’s walls look like they could crumble at any moment — much like the athlete’s hopes.
“We don’t know what to do anymore. I have to participate in six qualifier tournaments to get to Tokyo, but I’ve already missed two because of the problems in sport in this country,” says the 29-year-old.
These “problems” are a spiralling dispute between the Iraqi Olympic Committee and the country’s Ministry of Youth and Sports, a power struggle that has left aspiring Olympians without the necessary funds to train properly.
Iraq has competed in the Olympics since 1948, winning a single silver medal in the 1960 Games for weightlifting.
Under ex-dictator Saddam Hussein, the country’s Olympic Committee was headed by his eldest son Uday, whose reputation for violence included the alleged torture of Iraqi footballers whom he deemed to have under-performed.
When the US-led invasion toppled Saddam in 2003, all government bodies — including the committee — were dissolved in favour of the coalition-run administration.
app
