In Yemen, where hope is the byword, the NOC celebrates a best-practices Athletes’ Commission

Since 2014, Yemen has been rocked by civil war. The humanitarian crisis is among the world’s worst.   What is the Olympic Movement in a place of such violence? 

There are those who would argue that it is trivial. Maybe worse. Meaningless.Others would declare just the opposite. That the Movement’s aspirational ideals can, will, indeed must carry on in Yemen because, at our core, no matter where in our deeply troubled world, what we human beings need is what the Olympic Games mean most. Hope. Dreams. Inspiration.

In 2019, the National Olympic Committee’s headquarters were destroyed. The airport in Yemen’s largest city, Sana’a, has frequently been closed; to fly out requires a long, dangerous drive south to Aden. All the same, in a signal of resilience, indeed fortitude, the NOC is today up and operating. Does it need more funds? Surely. Did Yemen send a delegation to the Tokyo Games? Yes, five athletes, two female. 

“Every day we have work in the office,” the NOC Secretary General Mohamed Abdullah Al-Ahjri, said in a Zoom interview. “The Olympic Committee is active.”

It’s not just that the NOC is, with war all around, active. It’s that this particular NOC celebrates a revealing hallmark of commitment to governance and culture: an Athletes’ Commission. And it, too, is active.

The Yemeni commission dates to 2003, offering the nation’s athletes — the five who went to Tokyo included two swimmers and one each in athletics, judo and shooting — the opportunity, like athletes everywhere, to have their sports’ governing bodies hear their voices.

A fourth commission election cycle was due in 2016. The onset of war in 2014 put that off until January 2020, at a meeting of 37 athlete representatives, female athletes invited to take part in the vote for the first time.

After, Olympic Solidarity funds were made eligible.Elected Commission President: All Khousrof, a 2008 and 2012 Olympian in judo.“This,” Khousrof would say, “is a step that brings hope.”Of course, just two months later the pandemic erupted. Meanwhile, boxer Mohammed Al Qarnas succeeded Khousrof.

All the same, over the coming months, Yemen’s Athletes’ Commission would hold all — repeat, all — its planned seminars, as well as English courses to improve skills in a nation where Arabic is far and away the No. 1 language.

By any measure, these would be deemed NOC best practices. For them to come out of Yemen?

“We have no choice but to continue,” Al-Ahjri said. “The athletes know the same. We are used to the situation. We have to adapt.”

Meantime, at that 2020 vote, several women were elected to the commission. Its Secretary General: shooter Amal Mudhish Al Sabri, a mother of two who works as a researcher and has a master’s degree in social sciences.

In perhaps something of an ironic turn given the totality of circumstances in Yemen, Mudhish would show up several months later at an ISSF 10-metre air rifle event in New Delhi — the Yemen Olympic Committee paid for flight and hotel for her and her then-infant son — without a gun. 

London 2012 bronze medallist Gagan Narang arranged for a loan.“My dream,” Mudhish said at the time, “is to become a world champion, to participate in the Olympics and also obtain a doctorate in social sciences. “I hope that the war in Yemen will end and peace will prevail in all countries.”