Why did Egyptians rejoice over their athletes’ failures at the Paris Olympics?

It may be difficult to understand the joy expressed by Egyptians over the failures of their country’s athletes in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Egyptian teams brought home just three medals (one of each: gold, silver, bronze); a success rate of only two per cent, amid much controversy and criticism.

Perhaps there are psychological, political and economic motives that fuelled such a feeling, which haunts Egyptian teams’ participation in continental and international tournaments. There has been an increase in the level of rejoicing over the losses by Egyptian sports teams in recent years.

It’s probably wrong to reduce the issue to blaming the Muslim Brotherhood — the movement opposes President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi — for the spread of this hateful feeling, which is anything but patriotic. A different reading of what’s going on may help to reveal the motives.

According to official data, the Egyptian delegation to the Paris Olympics was the largest in the Arab world and Africa, with 164 athletes participating in 22 sports, in addition to technical, medical, administrative and media staff, as well as many officials, led by the head of the delegation, Yasser Idris, and the Egyptian Minister of Sports, Ashraf Subhi. The actual size of the delegation was so large that the authorities have kept it secret.

Getting the Egyptian Olympic delegation ready cost about 1.1 billion Egyptian pounds ($22 million), which is 777m pounds ($16m) more than it cost to send a delegation to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where six medals were won: a gold, a silver and four bronze. So, spending more led to a worse result. This is a paradox that raises questions in a country burdened with foreign debt of more than $153bn by the end of May, according to government data.

Basically, each medal won in Paris cost Egypt more than $7m.

This, at a time when the Egyptian government is experiencing a deficit in its financial budget which is forcing it to lift subsidies and raise the prices of essential items such as bread, fuel, electricity and gas, as well as subway and train fares.

The economic dimension was invoked by political researcher Mohamed Anan as he tried to interpret the happiness at the failures. He cited the Egyptians’ suffering due to difficult living conditions and heavy taxes which coincide with the government’s inability to meet the people’s minimum needs, and even asking people to self-impose austerity measures. Meanwhile, billions of Egyptian pounds have been spent on sports and athletes who fail to fulfil expectations.

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The mocking joy is fuelled by, for example, seeing Egyptian athletes coming last in many sports; the humiliating defeat — the score was six-nil — of the Egypt football team by Morocco; the loss of a bronze medal; the disqualification of boxer Yomna Ayyad for failing to meet the weight limit; the loss of Sabre fencer Nada Hafez, who is seven months pregnant; and wrestler Mohamed Ibrahim being accused of harassment. All of this suggests a large degree of randomness and corruption in the selection of both the athletes and the officials representing each sport federation, most of whom are connected to the military establishment. This drains the country’s resources to please a handful of people who are supported by the regime, leading the majority of Egyptians to rejoice at the obvious failure of corruption and the downfall of the corrupt, said Annan.

The first signs of corruption showed even before the start of the Olympics, when Shahd Saeed was announced as a member of the Egyptian delegation going to Paris. Shahd was convicted of deliberately injuring her colleague, Janna Eliwa, during a cycle race on 27 April. She was dropped from the cycling team under public pressure.

Another scandal was revealed when it was found out that a sum of around $414,000 was spent on one equestrian, Nael Nassar. who later withdrew because his horse was injured. Nassar was accompanied by eleven people, including his wife, whose cost of travel and accommodation was paid by the government, which means that it came from the pockets of ordinary Egyptians.

The whole Olympic enterprise in Egypt was so corrupt that it was almost blinding.

Other incidents included the spending of $175,000 on the archery team, which was eliminated on day one of the competition; sending (and paying for) the heads of sports federations from which no players qualified for the Games in the official delegation and travelling to Paris; selecting athletes who were not necessarily the best qualified; and including Egyptian MP Amira Abu Shaqa in the Skeet Shooting contest, in which she came last.

Table tennis player Omar Asr went to Paris, and pointed out that the team’s technical director is the brother of the table tennis federation’s president, and that the federation had cancelled a training camp without any notice and without replacing it with another one. Meanwhile, hammer-thrower Mustafa El-Gamal confirmed that he has been competing and practising without a coach since November 2023.

Ministerial Resolution No. 1044 of 2024 regarding the Egyptian delegation in Paris included controversial spending such as €180,000 as pocket money for athletes; €20,000 for internal transport; €30,000 for car rentals for the delegation; and €10,000 for internal communications, as well as €15,000 for miscellaneous contingencies, in addition to travel allowances and bonuses, which are not subject to financial control or audit.

In addition to corruption, journalist Mohamed Hussein believes that the happiness at the Egyptian Olympic Team’s failures is stronger because of the repression in the country, and restrictions on freedom of expression. The alternative is rejoicing and ridicule in the face of any failure or defeat of the regime, in any forum, including sports. This was clear when the Egypt football team lost in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2017 and 2021, and failed to qualify for the finals of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, and failed again in the Paris Olympics. The public rejoicing was a form of protest for the Egyptian people.

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According to Subhi, who has been Minister of Sports for more than six years, the Egyptian delegation’s aim was to get between six and ten medals in Paris. He promised that the winner of a gold medal would get 4 million Egyptian pounds (about $84,000); a silver medal winner would get 3 million pounds ($61,000); and a bronze medal winner would get 2 million pounds ($40.000). These are unprecedented rewards in a country where the World Bank has declared the poverty rate to be 32.5 per cent.

Hence, rejoicing at failure can be seen as a political act in protest against what Egyptians see as a waste of public money, and the foolishness of spending so much on athletes at a time when costs are rising and the vast majority of Egyptians struggle to pay for their basic necessities. An Egyptian teacher, for example, receives an average salary of just five thousand Egyptian pounds per month ($100).

Al-Sisi was quick to congratulate the winners of the three medals, describing what they did as something to be added to the achievements of this generation, confirming the determination, persistence and willpower of young Egyptians, who are a source of pride for the nation. Opponents saw this as a form of political manipulation, which attributes any success in any field to the regime, so they did the same in return, using the failures to justify the mock rejoicing.

According to mental health expert Dr Ahmed Metwally, Egyptian reaction to the Olympic losses reflects an expectation of failure, and is not rejoicing per se.

It is as if they’re saying, “We knew this would happen,” meaning that their expectations were accurate.

However, is it possible for any Egyptian to wish, deep down, for his country to fail in any venture? “People are conflicted by two emotions: a feeling of hope for victory, and an expectation of failure,” explained Metwally. “Sometimes they choose to expect failure to avoid the pain of disappointments, while reducing many of their feelings which indicate failure, loss and lack of horizons, all of which are because of political and economic reasons that everyone knows about.”

Egypt ranked 52nd in terms of medals won at the Paris Olympics. This was very poor, given the size of the delegation, the largest from Africa and the Arab world. However, it is comparable to Egypt’s ratings on, for example, the Corruption Perceptions Index for 2023 (108th); the Global Justice Index (136th); and the 2024 Press Freedom Index (170th). Clearly, the Egyptian regime is very good at being bad.

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