IOC reprimands Egyptian who wouldn’t shake Israeli’s hand

Egyptian judoka 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 he refused to bow or shake Sasson’s hand, in a major breach of judo etiquette.

After El Shehaby declined to shake his fellow competitor’s hands, the referee called him back to the mat.

Egypt’s Olympic committee, which has also strongly condemned El Shehaby’s actions, was asked by the IOC to educate their athletes on Olympic values before attending the Games in the future.

That Monday evening announcement came as the Israeli judokas returned to Tel Aviv from the Rio Games. El Shehaby bowed towards Israeli judo athlete Or Sasson and quickly left afterwards.

“To honor your rival is something I was educated to do”, he told the radio station. While Shehaby and his trainers said the match would go ahead, rumours then spread that he would make a statement on the day by refusing to shake hands.

“The Israeli athlete is not my friend who I must greet”, he said, adding, “I worked really hard to get into this Olympics, and in the end it turned into something political”. After narrowly losing to Riner, he beat Cuba’s Alex Mendoza to claim a bronze.

In response to the episode, International Judo Federation spokesman Nicolas Messner said that the organization will look into the incident and decide whether to take any action, according to Lebanese news agency Naharnet. In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab nation to recognize Israel with the signing of a peace treaty between the two countries.