Hassan Fekkak, technical director of the National Olympic Committee, has incurred the wrath of some athletes and Moroccans after claiming that "Morocco’s participation in Paris was better than in the editions of Tokyo, London and Rio de Janeiro."
Despite the fiasco, all Moroccan athletes who participated in the Paris Olympics will receive bonuses.
Many supporters gathered on Saturday at the Rabat-Salé airport to give a warm welcome to the Moroccan national Olympic football team and the athlete Soufiane El Bakkali, who respectively won bronze and gold at the Paris Olympic Games.
With only one gold medal won by athlete Soufiane El Bakkali and the first bronze medal in football won by the Atlas Lions, Morocco is the last in the ranking of Arab and African countries that participated in the Paris Olympics.
Moroccans expressed their disappointment with the participation of Moroccan athletes in the Paris Olympics, who performed poorly and failed to defend the national colors in this international competition.
Morocco offers generous bonuses to the athlete Soufiane El Bakkali who retained his title in the 3,000m steeplechase at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and to the Atlas Lions who won their first bronze medal by comfortably defeating Egypt (6-0).
Soufiane El Bakkali has once again made history in Moroccan athletics. The athlete retained his Olympic title in the 3,000m steeplechase at the Paris 2024 Games, thus giving Morocco its first gold medal of these Games. A performance that consecrates his dominance in the discipline and rewards a relentless preparation.
Moroccan athlete Soufiane El Bakkali retained his Olympic title in the 3000m steeplechase in Paris on Wednesday, becoming the first Moroccan runner in Olympic history to win two gold medals in two consecutive editions. An exploit that was hailed by many Moroccan celebrities on the web.
Hicham El Guerrouj , the Moroccan legend of athletics, said that participation in the Olympic Games requires rigorous long-term preparation and that one must hope to win Olympic medals after at least ten years of hard work.
While the Moroccan footballers are achieving a historic run at the Paris Olympic Games , their compatriots competing in other sports such as athletics, boxing and volleyball are sinking, causing the anger of Moroccan supporters.
In the eyes of Amnesty International, the ban on French athletes wearing headscarves from participating in the Olympic and Paralympic Games "violates international human rights law and reveals the discriminatory hypocrisy of the French authorities and the weakness and cowardice of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)".
The bonuses that Moroccan athletes who win gold, silver and bronze medals at the Olympics to be held from July 26 to August 11, 2024 in Paris are now known.