With a controversial plan, Saudi Arabia wants to host a male-only Olympics.
Prince Fahad bin Jalawi al-Saud – a consultant to the Saudi Olympic Committee proposed the gender-segregated games and said the country could bid jointly with Bahrain, which could host the women’s events.
“Our society can be very conservative. It has a hard time accepting that women can compete in sports,” the Prince told French website Francs Jeux.
“Wearing sports clothing in public is not really allowed. For these cultural reasons, it is difficult to bid for certain big international events.”
Fahad claimed that under new rules passed in the Olympic Agenda 2020 reform package a joint, segregated bid between the two nations would be permissible.
Unfortunately, the International Olympic Committee has swiftly slapped down the Fahad’s suggestion for segregated games.
Thomas Bach, President of IOC said in a statement:
“A commitment to ‘non-discrimination’ will be mandatory for all countries hoping to bid for the Olympics in the future. This was made very clear in the Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms and will even be in the host city contract.
If this is not applied, the bid would not be admissible. Countries like Saudi Arabia must really work to allow female athletes to ‘freely participate’.”
Under pressure from IOC, London 2012 was the first time that Saudi Arabia had sent female athletes 800m runner Sarah Attar and Judoka Wojdan Shahrkhani to an Olympic Games.
While a male-only team was sent to last year’s Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.