Sprinter Noureddine Hadid. (Credit: Noureddine Hadid/X)
For the first time since the Atlanta Games in 1996, no Lebanese will tread the athletics tracks of the Olympic Games. On July 31, Lebanese army head Joseph Aoun met with a delegation from the Lebanese Athletics Federation (LAF) who came to plead the cause of its one and only candidate to participate in the Paris 2024 Games: Noureddine Hadid.
Joseph Aoun vs LAF
"We will try until the last moment." Faithful to the end to its credo and to the man who represented it at the previous Tokyo Olympics three years ago, the governing body of Lebanese athletics has tried by all means to win its case and convince the military to let the 31-year-old sprinter leave Lebanese territory to run, this Saturday, Aug. 3, the 100 meters series at the Stade de France.
Despite the "reason of state" invoked by the LAF, the army remained intransigent and stuck to a position that it had made known to it for several months by sending letters indicating its refusal to allow a "deserter" to "represent the country in the international competition." A warning was reported by a security source to L'Orient-Le Jour shortly after the start of the affair, on July 4, when Hadid was arrested at Beirut airport upon arrival of a flight from France, almost nine months after his departure from Lebanon in mid-October 2023.
"A deserter cannot escape the measures planned against him," said the aforementioned source, adding that "no agreement with the general has been reached [this week] to let Noureddine Hadid leave," who is now subject to a ban on leaving the country after serving two weeks in prison following his arrest.
Except that this time, the sentence was irrevocable: "We tried to explain the situation to the general and find a solution, but he did not allow him to participate," confirms a member of the LAF. If, three days before the deadline, the option of sending another runner at the last minute as a replacement was almost an impossible mission, it had in any case been ruled out from the start by the LAF: "Unfortunately no one will participate," concluded the LAF source. The most legitimate to run the 100m was Noureddine, and if that is not possible, then we prefer to leave it at that."
Aziza Sbaity and Marc-Anthony Ibrahim
Noureddine Hadid was not the only Lebanese runner who could claim the "universality place," reserved for athletes from nations under-represented at the Olympic Games who narrowly missed out on qualification, at the time when it had been granted to Lebanon by the international athletics federation, World Athletics, in the 100m, 800m or marathon.
The names of Aziza Sbaity and Marc-Anthony Ibrahim, both national record holders in their respective disciplines, were successively proposed by the Lebanese Olympic Committee (LOC) in an attempt to break the impasse into which athletics has gradually fallen. After procrastinating, Lebanon had no choice but to align itself with the men's 100m, the other races (women's 100m, 800m and marathon) having already been filled.
"This week again, we are negotiating until the end with World Athletics (the International Athletics Federation) to find a solution despite the delay accumulated to make a name official," confided a member of the committee, wishing to remain anonymous. Initially set for July 7, this "deadline" had been exceptionally postponed until Sunday, July 28 by World Athletics. But while everything seemed to be in place for Marc-Anthony Ibrahim to be appointed as a last resort, the LAF once again refused to change gear within the allotted time.
"Without the approval of the national federation, the international federation cannot change the name of the participant that was given to it, that of Noureddine Hadid. That is why Marc-Anthony Ibrahim will not run either," they said. Was it, in any case, desirable that a 400 and 800m runner find himself running a distance in which he is not a specialist? "It would have been better than nothing," they supposed, adding, "All that for that..."
This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.