September 24, 2004

Insufficient entries in the football and handball tournaments has eliminated both sports from this year's Arab Games, which opened today in Algiers.

Yemen dropped out of the football tournament, leaving only Algeria, Iraq, Palestine and Tunisia.

Saudi Arabia dropped out of the handball tournament at the very last minute leaving just Egypt, Iraq, Tunisia and hosts Algeria.

Games rules generally state that there must be a certain number of teams or individuals entered in an event for it to be considered official and for medals to be awarded.

Cameroon, Iraq, Mongolia, Nigeria and the Philippines may miss Children's Games

July 25, 2004

The city of Cleveland has signed up some 143 cities from 60 nations according to the games web site, for the first International Children's Games held in the United States, but problems obtaining visas may keep five of those nations, and about fifty athletes, from participating, the Cleveland Plain Dealer has reported.

The visas reportedly have not been denied. The delegations involved were said to have simply not allowed enough time to obtain the documents.

Games organizers took the issue all the way to the White House, with no success

More International Children's Games

June 3, 2004

Iraqi sources announced this week that Iraq would send 347 athletes to the Arab Games in September with a total of 667 people in its delegation.  Iraq will also participate in the scientific congress and the cultural components of the games.

Only Algeria and Egypt are planning to have more athletes at the games.

Iraqi participation in the Arab Games has been controversial ever since the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Iraq was banned from the 1992 and 1997 editions of the games, returning in 1999.  Kuwait boycotted the 1999 games in protest of Iraqi participation.

Iraq's most successful participation in the Arab Games was in 1985 when Iraq won 20 gold, 20 silver and 15 bronze medals. In 1999 Iraq won 8 gold, 7 silver and 30 bronze medals.

The Algiers Arab Games were originally scheduled for 2003, but the earthquake in May of 2003 in Algeria postponed the games on year.

The Arab Games are scheduled for September 24 to October 8, less than a month after the closing of the Olympic Games in Athens.

May 25, 2004

While the delegation from Iran that was scheduled to participate in the Titan Games has indicated it is backing out, the USOC announced that three athletes from Iraq will take part in the games. The participation has been arranged with the cooperation of the USOC, the IOC's Olympic Solidarity Program and the US Department of State.

The Iraqi boxer is Najah S. Ali, who was discovered in Iraq by Maurice “Termite” Watkins, the pest control specialist and former boxer who rose to fame last year when he began training Iraqi boxers on the side.  Watkins fires up his Iraqi team with shouts of 'Iraq is back!"

Ali will be able to participate in the Olympics after being given one of five discretionary entries from the IOC. Ali fought in two pre-olympic tournaments, but was not able to qualify for the games in either.

Two Greco-Roman wrestlers, Ahmed J. Jasim and Ahamad N. Weali, are also lined up to participate in the Titan Games.

More NOC's recognized by IOC

July 6, 2003

At the recent IOC meetings in Prague, Kiribati and East Timor were recognized as member nations by the IOC, and Afghanistan was reinstated to membership. This brings the total of recognized NOCs to 202, with Iraq the only suspended NOC.

Iraqi Team Back in Special Olympics

May 21, 2003

Iraq will send a delegation of for athletes to the Special Olympics World Games in Ireland. The trip was canceled at the outbreak of the recent war. The British Government has announced that it will pay the expenses of the Iraqi team to travel to the games.

Iraq to Rejoin CISM?

May 17, 2003

Iraq has inquired directly of CISM President Gianni Gola, asking for re-instatement into the governing body for world military sports.

Iraq was suspended from the CISM after their invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

Gola said that the General Assembly of the CISM will consider re-instating Iraq when the Iraqi army is re-formed and they have their own military sports activities practiced by military teams.

Iraq team may skip Special Olympics in Ireland

April 9, 2003

Iraq's Special Olympians may not travel to the Special Olympic World Games in Ireland this summer, according to an early April announcement by Iraqi Special Olympic officials.

Iraqi officials sent a fax to their Irish hosts to say that they would not be traveling to the games. However, at the same time, the Iraqi's said that if the war in their nation was over, they might reconsider, a possibility that seems more likely each day.

Each visiting nation to the games in Ireland is to be hosted in one of 150 different Irish towns before the games. A minor protest took place over the sign that had already been put in place to welcome Iraq to the town of Ulster. Local authorities said that the signs would stay, and that the Special Olympians had nothing to do with what was going on in their country.

Was Iraq ever an "Asian Sports Power?"

Daniel Bell, April, 2003

The March 24, 2003 issue of  Sports Illustrated magazine contains an article, Son of Saddam, by Don Yaeger, that describes the brutality of the Iranian Olympic Committee and Iraqi sports system as run by Saddam Hussein's son Uday. The article quotes Iraqi expatriate athletes, coaches and dissidents.

The article claims that Iraq was "once an Asian sports force", citing as evidence only that Iraq sent 46 athletes to the Moscow Olympic Games, a boycotted games in which more athletes from each nation were invited simply to fill fields.

The article goes on to state that Iraq, "now rivals Liechtenstein in terms of athletic insignificance."

Given the following facts, Liechtenstein should feel rightfully insulted by such a remark.  

In the Olympic Games, Liechtenstein has won two gold, two silver, and five bronze medals, all in winter sports, since 1972. 

Iraq, on the other hand, has won a grand total of one Olympic medal, a bronze, in 1960.

Liechtenstein is a veritable sporting giant in relation to Iraq in this regard and in comparison to dozens of other nations.

On a per capita basis, it's no contest. Herman de Wael, has ranked each medal winning nation based on its population. Of the 116 nations since 1948 that have won Olympic medals, Iraq ranks 114th, just behind the Philippines, and just ahead of Vietnam and India. Iraq has won .05 medals per 10 million inhabitants. 

Liechtenstein holds the very top spot on the list, well in front of former power East Germany. East Germany, during its existence, won 76 medals per 10 million citizens. Liechtenstein, a whopping 305 medals per 10 million citizens.  

The numbers here are a bit skewed, simply because a small nation like Liechtenstein, also on a per-capita basis, is allowed to enter relatively far more athletes than the larger countries. 

There are a further 100 or so nations that have never won an Olympic medal. To choose Liechtenstein as a model of "athletic insignificance" is a mistake.

So was Iraq ever a sports Power in Asia? 

Recently, it's difficult to tell.  Iraq competed in the Asian Games in 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, without an exceeding amount of success, never finishing any higher than 10th. Iraq is not recorded as participating in the games since 1986.  

In the Arab Games, the closest performance that would described as coming from a "sports force" would be the third place performance at the Casablanca Arab Games in 1985. However, usually strong Arab Games participant Egypt, did not compete in the 1985 Arab Games. Egypt was under sanction from the Arab League for signing a peace treaty with Israel.

1985 Arab Games

Iraq did not compete in the 1957, 1961 or 1965 Arab Games. Iraq boycotted the 1961 Games, protesting the participation of Kuwait, which Iraq was claiming as a part of its territory.

Iraq has never hosted a major games of any kind according to the research of the International Games Archive, which keeps a database of over 2150 international multisport games.

In January, 1984, during the period of the Iran-Iraq war, the Council of Arabian Ministers of Youth and Sports met, and in a attempt to stabilize the Arab Games, named the hosts for 1989, 1993 and 1997.  Iraq was named host for 1989 Arab Games, but the war with Iran lasted until 1988, and the games were never held.

Iraq, prior to the recent March 2003 war, had been mentioning bidding for the 2012 Olympic Games, and according to some reports, building new stadiums for the games using its UN "oil for food" money.

After Iraq invaded Kuwait, in August of 1990 (an invasion during which Shiekh Fahad al Sabah, the President of the Olympic Council of Asia, and a  member of the International Olympic Committee from Kuwait was murdered by the Iraqi invaders), Iraq was banned from the Arab Games and did not participate in 1992 in Damascus. Iraqi athletes traveled to the Syrian border to protest their exclusion from the games.

In 1997, Lebanon refused to give Iraq's athletes visas for the games to be held in Beirut. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain the United Arab Emirates and Qatar had promised to boycott the games if Iraq was allowed to participate.

The Iraqis were incensed. They argued that the Arab League had invited them to the games and that even the United States had not attempted to stop Iraq from participating in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

The Lebanese would not budge. Uday tried to force the issue and sent 95 Iraqi athletes to the Lebanese border where the Lebanese refused to let them cross. The Iraqi teams waited at the border for two days before returning home.

In 1999, the rest of the Arab nations relented, and said they would allow Iraq back in the games. Kuwait however, claiming that Iraq was still holding prisoners of war from 1990, said that they would boycott the games. This was tragic in that Kuwait had been the one Arab nation to participate in all previous nine Arab Games. Iraq finished tenth in those games with eight gold, seven silver and thirty bronze medals.

It will be very interesting, given the current state of world affairs, to see and hear the reaction given to Iraq at this summer's Arab Games to be held in Algeria in September.

Iraqi teams preparing for Arab Games

March, 2003

An international coalition is building against Saddam Hussein and Iraq for twelve years of violations related to the agreements from the 1990 Gulf War.

Facing a possible war, Iraq's athletes are dutifully preparing for the Arab Games to be held later this year in Algiers.

South Korea and Iraq recently held a joint taekwondo training camp in Baghdad. with several practice matches.

Korean experts held two training and refereeing courses, and a Korean coach is to train the Iraqi team for the Arab Games.

Iraq's swimmers, tennis players, chess team and disabled athletes are also preparing for the games.