DUBAI: Palestinian swimmer Yazan Al Bawwab, who is training for the 2024 Olympic Games, has a mission. He wants to represent Palestinians suffering from Israel’s bombardment of Gaza by making a splash on the international stage.
These Olympics, which kick off in Paris on July 26, are perhaps more important than the last games in 2021 when he competed in Tokyo, he said.
“We, as Palestinian players, are here to raise the flag and show people that we are here, and even if we face difficulties, we will be there and represent the Palestinian people,” he said.
The 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza need all the help they can get as they endure dire conditions.
Israel agression on Gaza killed more than 37,000 people and reduced much of the Gaza Strip to rubble.
Bawwab, 24, who was born in Saudi Arabia to Palestinian refugees, is chasing a dream that is not his alone.
“My father’s dream was to learn how to swim and become a swimmer,” Al Bawwab told Reuters in Dubai, where he conducts his workouts and runs a furniture factory.
But his father, Rashad Al Bawwab, who left Palestinian territory when he was 18, was not able to realize that dream.
“I wanted Yazan to enter swimming, because I loved swimming and it’s a beautiful sport,” the senior Al Bawwab said.
His father said the upcoming games in Paris are an opportunity for his son to help the Palestinian cause.
“But what’s more important is that he represents an oppressed people, whose rights are repressed,” Rashad said.
Aside from the near constant bombardments, Palestinians in Gaza are suffering a humanitarian crisis, with severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Many of their homes have been destroyed.
Al Bawwab was born and raised outside of the Palestinian territories. But he says: “I remain Palestinian, Palestine is in my heart and all my thoughts.”
In Dubai, Al Bawwab trains by himself and with retired Palestinian Olympic swimmer Ahmed Gebrel, who represented Palestine at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Gebrel says: “I’m confident that he’s at the top level and will represent us in the best way.”
Al Bawwab will travel to an Olympic training camp in the Netherlands next week and then onto France. Ahead of the competition, his focus will be on three things — training, eating, and sleeping.
“Inshallah (God willing) we’ll win something, and make the country and the people proud,” he says.
“I want to show people that Palestinians are strong. If we’re given an opportunity, we’ll take it.”
Palestinian swimmer hopes to lift spirits of Gazans at Olympics
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Palestinian swimmer hopes to lift spirits of Gazans at Olympics
Marmoush, Salah strike as Egypt edge out holders Ivory Coast in quarter-final
- Egypt wasted little time in taking the lead as Marmoush scored in the fourth minute
- That set up a siege of the Egyptian goal in the final 15 minutes but they held out to advance
AGADIR, Morocco: Omar Marmoush netted the opener and Mohamed Salah scored the decisive goal as Egypt ended Ivory Coast’s reign with a narrow 3-2 triumph in Saturday’s Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final.
Center back Rami Rabia was the other scorer for the Egyptians, who had little possession at the Grande Stade Agadir but took their chances with clinical precision and held on grimly to book a semifinal meeting with Senegal on Wednesday.
An own goal from Ahmed Fatouh and a late effort by Guela Doue proved insufficient for the Ivory Coast, winners of the tournament on home soil two years ago but now deposed as African champions.
Egypt, who have won a record seven Cup of Nations titles, wasted little time in taking the lead as Marmoush scored in the fourth minute after Hamdi Fathy pinched the ball from Franck Kessie in the midfield, allowing Emam Ashour to thread a pinpoint ball to the sprinting Marmoush. He still needed to shrug off the attentions of defender Odilon Kossounou before slotting home.
But it quickly became clear the Ivorians were going to dominate possession, showing much more physical strength on the ball but without setting up clear chances.
Egypt went 2-0 up in the 32nd minute when Rabia rose above the defenders to head his side further ahead from a corner.
The Ivory Coast, who had 70 percent of possession in the first half, reduced the deficit eight minutes later when teenager Yann Diomande’s freekick near the corner took a slight brush off Kossounou’s head and ricocheted off the knee of full back Fatouh and into the net.
SALAH FINISHED OFF CLEVER MOVE
The Ivorians had come from 2-0 down to beat Gabon 3-2 earlier in the tournament but hopes of turning the scoreline around soon after the re-start were stymied by a simply created, but superbly finished, goal for Salah seven minutes after the break.
Rabia was well inside his own half when he chipped the ball over the top of the Ivorian defensive line, allowing Ashour to run onto it and hit an accurate pass with the outside of his right boot into the path of Salah to score.
An Ivorian comeback was still on when Doue touched home at the end of a goalmouth scramble in the 73rd minute.
That set up a siege of the Egyptian goal in the final 15 minutes but they held out to advance.
Earlier on Saturday, Nigeria overpowered Algeria 2-0 in Marrakech and will take on hosts Morocco in the other semifinal.
