“I’m here to compete, not just participate,” says 20-year-old Waseem Abu Sal from Ramallah, the first Palestinian boxer at the Olympics, in an interview with Euronews. Of the eight Palestinian athletes who have competed in the Olympics, only two still reside in Palestine.
Aside from the Refugee Team, the Palestinian squad will be the only one at the Paris 2024 Olympics with the majority of its athletes living outside their home country.
Of the eight athletes, six were born or currently reside abroad — in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Germany, Chile, and the United States.
Training in Palestine has become almost impossible following the war between Hamas and Israel.
Among the more than 38,000 fatalities of the war, around 300 were athletes, referees, coaches, and other sports personnel, according to the technical director of the Palestine Olympic Committee.
Only two athletes of the Palestinian Olympic squad stayed in Palestine: Runner Mohammed Dwedar, from Jericho, and featherweight boxer Wasim Abu Sal, from Ramallah.
Hamas-Israel war ‘destroyed’ Palestine sports generation ‘dream’
Wasim Abu Sala is the first athlete in history to represent Palestine in the Olympics.
Despite being only 20 years old and having already won two international medals, he told Euronews that it wasn’t at all an easy ride.
He trained in Palestine during the war and will return home with the conflict likely still ongoing.
“For me, it has always been very difficult because in Palestine there are not many other athletes to train or interact with, but I never gave up.”
“Before the war, I competed in the Asian Championships. It was nice to be there with other athletes from the diaspora, from Gaza, from the West Bank. In the end, they became like my brothers. But some of them died in the war. Another one, a young boxer, lost an eye during the occupation, and with it, his dream.”
One of the most prominent Palestinian athletes to die in the war was long-distance runner Majed Abu Maraheel. He became the first Palestinian to compete in the Olympics at Atlanta96.
He died of kidney failure earlier this year after being unable to receive treatment in Gaza or be evacuated to Egypt, Palestinian officials said.
‘I’m at the Olympic Games to compete, not just participate’
Palestine’s eight athletes at the Olympics will compete in boxing, judo, swimming, shooting, track and field and taekwondo.
Only one Palestinian athlete, taekwondo’s Omar Ismail, qualified for the Paris Games in his own right. The seven others gained their spots under a wild-card system delivered as part of the universality quota places.
Backed by the International Olympic Committee, it allows athletes who represent poorer nations with less-established sports programs to compete, even though they do not meet the sporting criteria.
But Abu Sal isn’t concerned with how he qualified—thanks to a wild card. What matters to him now is what happens next.
“I am the first Palestinian boxer at the Olympics. I have the wind at my back, not just a participant, but a contender,” he told Euronews.
No Palestinian athlete has ever won an Olympic medal.
‘We’ll fight until the last second’
Palestine Olympic Committee Director Nader Jayousi said winning medals is not the top priority for the athletes who made it to Paris.
“We are here to show our Palestinianism,” he said. “We are focused on fighting until the last second, which we have been doing as a nation for the last 80 years.”
“We had very high hopes that we would go to Paris 2024 with qualified athletes,” Jayousi, the team’s technical director, said.
“We lost many opportunities due to the complete halt of all activities in the country.”
Yazan Al Bawwab, a 24-year-old swimmer who was born in Saudi Arabia and lives in Dubai, said he doesn’t expect recognition for his performance in the pool. He uses swimming, he said, as a “tool for Palestine.”
“Do you know how many approved pools there are in Palestine? Zero,” said al Bawaab, who noted that the Palestinian economy is too small and fragile to consistently support the development of elite athletes.
“There is no sports in Palestine. We are a country right now that does not have enough food or shelter, and we are trying to figure out how to stay alive. We are not a sports country yet.”
Pope Francis said on Sunday he hoped the 2024 Olympic Games would be “an opportunity to establish a truce in wars” as he called for peace in conflicts around the globe.
