Egyptian Olympic Committee suspends wrestling delegation head after second athlete leaves team

The Egyptian Olympic Committee has suspended Ibrahim Adel El-Attar, head of the country’s wrestling delegation at the Mediterranean Games, and referred him to its Values Committee after wrestler Mohamed Mostafa El Shamy left the team during a stopover in Rome.

The incident happened as the Egyptian wrestling delegation travelled back to Cairo after the Mediterranean Games in Taranto, Italy.

El Shamy is the second Egyptian wrestler to leave a national team delegation in less than three days. The Ministry of Youth and Sports said earlier this week that it was monitoring the case of Ziad Haggag, who left the Egyptian delegation’s accommodation in Slovakia after competing at the World Youth Wrestling Championships.

The Egyptian Olympic Committee said its preliminary inquiries had identified “negligence, laxity and a failure to properly monitor members of the delegation”, making El-Attar administratively responsible under the regulations governing national teams.

The delegation travelled from Taranto airport to Rome with all of its members before stopping in transit to complete its journey home. According to the committee, the delegation head was expected to keep the team’s passports in his possession during the stopover, but did not do so.

When El Shamy’s coach noticed that the wrestler had disappeared, he tried to follow him. The attempt was unsuccessful and the coach was forced to miss the flight, while El Shamy managed to leave the delegation.

The committee said the wrestler’s departure was an individual decision, but that supervision of delegation members was an administrative responsibility.

It added that referring El-Attar to the Values Committee did not amount to a final judgement. Instead, it was part of an investigation intended to establish the full extent of responsibility in line with the relevant regulations.

The disciplinary action came after a highly successful Mediterranean Games campaign for Egyptian wrestling. The team won seven medals in Taranto, including two golds, two silvers and three bronzes.

Samar Hamza and Mohamed Hassan claimed the gold medals, while Mohamed Farag and Abdelrahman Haitham won silver.

The bronze medals went to Mawadda Badawy, Mostafa Hussein and Shehab El-Din Abdel Raouf. El Shamy, meanwhile, was eliminated in the preliminary rounds.

The Egyptian Olympic Committee said the delegation’s sporting success should not be overshadowed by the incident during the journey home.

“Seven medals show that Egyptian wrestling made a strong impact on the mat, and its participation cannot be reduced to an unfortunate incident that happened on the return journey,” the committee said.

It described the decision to suspend the delegation head as evidence that sporting achievement would not protect officials from accountability, while stressing that the disciplinary process should not diminish the athletes’ accomplishments.

“There should be no favouritism towards a mistake because of an achievement, and no injustice towards an achievement because of a mistake,” the statement added.

“The medal winners have the right to celebrate, while the administrative official has the duty to answer for what happened.”

The committee concluded: “Wrestling returned with seven medals. The Olympic Committee has said that medals are honoured, negligence is held to account, and responsibility cannot be allowed to disappear.”