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Join on Telegram Rabat – After five years of preparation for the Tokyo Olympics, Algerian judoka Fethi Nourine will not compete in a single match after he refused to compete. Nourine was supposed to face off with Israeli judoka Tohar Butbul, if he had won his first match, after their names were drawn to meet in the second round of the competition.
Nourine’s coach Amar Benikhlef called the draw “unlucky” as the result meant Nourine would “retire” from the Games as he refused to compete with an Israeli.
Nourine told Algerian press that his “position on the Palestinian issue is firm, I will not recognize the Israeli flag, and I will not get my hands dirty with it.”
By refusing to compete with an opponent, Nourine effectively withdrew from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Given his political stance, winning a judo medal for him appears to have always run the risk of facing an Israeli, as Tohar Butbul is the 6th-ranked judoka in the world.
The International Judo Federation (IJF) opposed Nourine’s stance. It announced an “immediate response” from the IJF “to form an investigative commission which confirmed all the facts, leading to a temporary suspension of the athlete and the coach.”
The IJF will assign the case to its internal disciplinary commission, with Nourine facing “further investigation, judgement and final sanctioning beyond the Olympic Games.”
The Judo federation stated its position was on its rules that aim to protect the “neutrality” of judo. According to the IJF statement, “no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”
For Fethi Nourine, the boycott and its backlash from his sport’s governing body won’t come as a surprise. He faced a similar situation in 2019 when he resigned from the Judoka World Championships after being drawn with the same Israeli athlete.
