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Egyptian judo fighter refuses to shake Israeli opponent's hand

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Egyptian judo fighter Islam El Shehaby was loudly booed at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics after his first-round loss to Israel's fifth-ranked Or Sasson, when El Shehaby refused to shake Sasson's hand, in a major breach of judo etiquette.



Sasson defeated El Shehaby with two throws for an automatic victory, with about a minute and a half remaining in the bout.

Afterwards, El Shehaby lay flat on his back for a moment before standing to take his place before Sasson, in front of the referee. When Sasson extended his hand, El Shehaby backed away, shaking his head.

The referee then called El Shehaby back to the mat and obliged to him bow; El Shehaby gave a quick nod of his head.

El Shehaby refused to comment afterward.

Judo players typically bow or shake hands at the beginning and end of a match, as a sign of respect in the Japanese martial art.

The International Judo Federation said that the fact that the fight even took place between those two athletes was already a major sign of progress.

"This is already a big improvement that Arabic countries accept to (fight) Israel," spokesman Nicolas Messner said in an email. He said there was no obligation to shake hands, but to bow is mandatory.

Messner said that even though El Shehaby ultimately bowed, "his attitude will be reviewed after the games to see if any further action should be taken."

El Shahaby had come under pressure from Islamist-leaning and nationalist voices in Egypt to withdraw entirely from the fight.

On Thursday, Mataz Matar, a TV host in Al-Sharq Islamist-leaning network urged el-Shehaby to withdraw.

"My son watch out, don't be fooled, or fool yourself thinking you will play with the Israeli athlete to defeat him and make Egypt happy," he said, adding "Egypt will cry; Egypt will be sad and you will be seen as a traitor and a normalizer in the eyes of your people."

Hisham Hatab, head of the Egyptian Olympic Committee, was quoted by the daily al-Masry al-Youm as saying there will be no withdrawals, adding "Islam will play the match without troubles."

Asked whether the two athletes will shake hands, Hatab said, "the delegation doesn't allow mixing politics with sports. In Judo, the players can either shake hands or bow in respect to each other. It's up to the player." Egypt's minister for youth and sports was quoted as saying, "we have to accept competition with everyone regardless of anything."

The incident triggered strong reaction on social media:

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/rio-olympic ... or-sasson/

Egyptians moving forward

Typical Arab world reaction, keep the old enmities going at any opportunity that presents itself.

Well done Egypt!

Your guy was jeered & booed for his boorish behaviour.

His action did nothing for the plight of Palestinians or for Egypt's image.

If you wanted to make a point....better to have simply defaulted the bout rather than trying to insult a fellow competitor.

Quite, quite un-gentlmanly behaviour.
As an ex Wadō-ryū fighter who was actually there, when the UK won the World Championship against Japan.

He should have sneaked when he wasn't looking, and flattened him with a lump of 4x2,
that would put a smile on somebodies face. Sort of MT'd him....
Ps: My sensei was Geoff Britton who was also Wings drummer, till he got kicked out probably getting his leg over Linda.

Talk about losing it with age, was googling something just now and this popped up, 'la whalla!....
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=33033
"The devil makes work for idle hands...

Obviously he doesn't understand the true meaning of sportsmanship. On the news today it showed two young female gymnasts, one from North Korea, the other from the South. They were competing against each other. They were smiling as they each took selfies of themselves, arms over each others shoulders. The photos went viral on the internet. The kids have the right attitude towards these power games, their gymnastics are far more important to them that of the constant saber rattling that their nations continue towards each other. Just hope the girl from the North doesn't suffer any comebacks from their muppet ruler.

A British competitor in the Olympics was beaten into 2nd place by a Russian, the Russian had previously been banned for drug abuse and served his ban but has now returned able to compete again.
During some of the period of his ban he was not obliged to undertake drug tests. The coach of the British competitor noticed how the Russian had bulked up during his break from competition.
I know it's nothing like the situation with the Egyptian/Israeli's but if you were the Brit would you be happy to congratulate the winner on the podium or would you feel cheated.

I would feel uneasy competing against ANY Russian competitor, in any sport, in the Olympics given the country's aptitude for state-sponsored cheating by use of drugs.

However, without proof positive, I think you have to swallow your suspicions and treat a defeat by a Russian adversary graciously.

Hopefully, the testing procedures are now sufficiently advanced that it's unlikely that a competitor could achieve , by illegal drug use, a significant advantage and remain undetected.....but who knows?