Egypt Withdrawing Team From Qatar-Hosted Short Course World Championships

CAIRO – Politics is coming into play for next month’s short course world championships with the report that Egypt is pulling its swimmers from the competition as a protest against host Qatar’s support of Islamist radical groups in the Middle East.

It is not known how many athletes were planning to represent Egypt at the meet, which takes place December 3-7 in Doha, but it is likely they were invited by FINA as part of the global federation’s Universality program that gives developing nations the opportunity to race in the world championships despite not meeting qualifying times. Egypt participated in the 2010 short course world championships in the United Arab Emirates, just southeast of Qatar on the Persian Gulf.

According to The Associated Press, FINA “regrets the Egyptian Swimming Federation decision to not take part” in the meet. Though smaller politically-charged withdrawals have taken place during the FINA World Cup, this is the first time in recent history when a country has used political reasons to withdraw from the year’s big world swimming championships.

The meet is still set to be the largest in history, with 900 athletes from 170 countries set to attend, according to the AP.

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