Athletes boycotting Israelis at Games will be punished

Any athlete found to have deliberately boycotted competing against an Israeli opponent at the London Olympics will be punished, said IOC president Jacques Rogge yesterday.

The 70-year-old Belgian was reacting after Egyptian athletes were called upon – as have other Arab athletes – to avoid competing against Israelis at the Games which get underway on Friday.

“Definitely the reaction of the IOC would be the one that we are going to consider the practical situation,” said Rogge.

“If an athlete is genuinely injured or ill, then of course it is understandable. But we will examine every case thoroughly with an independent medical team, and if the medical team does not ratify the decision of the first doctor, then the athlete will be punished.”

At the 2004 Games in Athens, Iran’s world judo champion Arash Miresmaeil pulled out of a bout against Israeli Ehud Vaks although he was later cleared of deliberately having boycotted the contest.

Meanwhile, Rogge remarked that the possibility of the Olympic Games ever being co-hosted was the ‘Loch Ness Monster’ of the body. He said that there was a lot of difference between FIFA being able to award the World Cup to joint hosts and the IOC doing a similar thing.

“That’s the monster of Loch Ness!” he said smiling.

“It comes up and then it disappears. FIFA can do that as on a normal day they have at most three matches but we have 28 World Championships a day.”