Israel has accused an Algerian judo competitor of deliberately failing a weigh-in to avoid facing their own judoka at the Paris Olympics.
Algeria’s Redouane Messaoud Dris, who was gearing up to compete in the -73kg category against Israeli’s Tohar Butbul on Monday, was removed from the draw for exceeding weight limits.
‘Redouane Messaoud Dris has been disqualified… Dris, entered in the men’s -73 kg event, failed the weigh-in. Therefore his opponent will win the scheduled contest by walkover,’ Olympics organizers confirmed in a statement on Sunday.
The Israeli Olympic Committee has alleged that Dris, 22, failed his weigh-in on purpose to escape his match against Butbul.
‘Tohar’s competitor has removed himself from the competition,’ they said in a statement. ‘The Israeli delegation will continue to compete with the Olympic values in mind, we believe this kind of behavior has no place in the world of sport.’
Algerian judokas have a history of withdrawing against Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games. Algeria’s Fethi Nourine was handed a 10-year ban by the International Judo Federation in 2021 after he withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics in a bid to evade a potential fight with Butbul in the second round.
Upon his withdrawal, Nourine said it was impossible to face Butbul because of his support of Palestine amid their ongoing conflict with Israel.
In 2019, the International Judo Federation suspended Iran from competing internationally after judoka Saeid Mollaei revealed he was told to throw his semi-final rather than risk facing an Israeli in the final. Mollaei also said that he had been ordered to withdraw from the competition at an even earlier stage as not to arouse suspicion about throwing the match.
‘If an athlete fails to comply with these orders, he and his family are 100% sure to get into trouble. Even now, I don’t know what my family’s situation is,’ Mollaei said.
