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Kuwaiti athlete becomes the first to win gold under IOC flag

August 11, 2016

A Kuwaiti shooter has become the first athlete to win a gold medal while competing under the Olympic flag. This came amid a dispute between the IOC and Kuwait that resulted in the country being banned from Rio.

https://p.dw.com/p/1JfrC
Olympia 2012 Trap Fehaid Aldeehani
Image: Reuters

Fehaid Al-Deehani battled rainy and blustery conditions to win the men's double trap event at Rio de Janeiro's Olympic shooting range on Wednesday.

The 49-year-old, who was competing at his sixth Olympic Games, beat Marco Innocenti of Italy in their battle for the gold medal, hiting 26 of 30 orange targets, two more than the Italian. Steven Scott of Britain took the bronze medal.

"That was for my country, for the people who don't want us to participate in the Olympics," Al-Deehani said afterwards. "I'm showing them that we are here and we got the medal."

While he was filled with pride at winning the first gold medal of his long career, Al-Deehani said the fact that it was not the Kuwaiti but the Olympic flag that was raised in the medal ceremony saddened him.

"I can't describe my feeling on the podium," he said."I am winning the gold medal, the biggest achievement of the Games, without raising my country's flag. It really hurts me, I can hardly stop crying."

Al-Deehani, who won bronze medals in Sydney in 2000 and London in 2012, was forced to compete under the Olympic flag after the International Olympic Committee banned Kuwait in October of last year, accusing the government of interference in the country's Olympic Committee.

pfd/jh (Reuters, AP)