At Paris 2024, a fleeting truce between Israel and Palestine. “I have no problem with any human being except when you step on our necks,” Yazan al-Bawwab, proudly flying the flag for Palestine, tells Telegraph Sport after finishing third in the opening 100m backstroke heat.
Under the same roof, and in the fourth heat is Adam Maraana, of Israel, who finishes fourth with a faster time than Al-Bawwan. Neither qualify for the semi-finals, as it turns out, but there are no hostilities between the pair as they pass one another and even change nearby one another.
It is probably the closest a Palestinian athlete will come to an Israeli counterpart at these games. There are only eight athletes on the Palestinian team in total. Yet a potential tinderbox at La Defense Arena remains timid.
After more than nine months of war in Gaza sparked by the Hamas terror attack, Al-Bawwab says he has lost count of family members and friends killed. But before a question is asked, he says he has a “message of peace”.
“I’m very, very honoured and proud to be at an Olympic Games,” he tells journalists immediately after finishing his race. “This is the only event where it’s fair. The rules, the regulations — everybody has to abide by [them] and I’m very, very happy to represent a country, which is not recognised in this country, to raise my flag. To have time just for Palestine, a lane just for Palestine. I can play sports like everybody else. I look like a kid from Gaza.”
Given there are no pools at all in Palestine, it will come as little surprise to learn Al-Bawwab trained elsewhere — in Dubai — to qualify for these Games. He is Saudi-born, in fact, but explains his heritage is as a Palestinian refugee. “Because of sports, you listen to me, and you care about what I say,” he says. “But nobody cares about what people in Palestine say, so this is my message of peace: please treat us as human beings. We deserve the same rights as everybody else. We want to play sports like everybody else.”
