Olympic Boxer Sarah Ourahmoune Exits Federation Race After Racist, Sexist Attacks

"I was the target of racist and sexist attacks," denounced Sarah Ourahmoune in a post on Instagram, specifying that she had received "words like ’the Arab of service’, ’cleaning lady of the Federation’, or even ’the bitch of...’, not to mention the anonymous messages of unheard-of and deeply shocking violence." The Olympic silver medalist in Rio in 2016 will add: "I cannot accept it. I refuse to be silent. And, for the first time, I feel that this fight is not here, in this place that I will lead it. I am outraged, and deeply saddened. I discover with sincere pain that my sport, the one I have loved so much, is going through a period of suffering that goes beyond simple rivalries. Our society is suffering, and I am worried for all of us."

The post of the former champion has sparked a wave of reactions. On Tuesday, on the set of La chaîne L’Équipe, Brahim Asloum expressed his outrage: "I’m a little ashamed, I’m in pain, frankly I’m suffering, I put myself in Sarah’s place," he declared, lamenting the fact that "these are people with origins, people like us, who allow themselves to insult her." Very upset, the Olympic champion in Sydney in 2000 rewinds: "But who do you think you are? This group of trainers, three-quarters of them haven’t done a tenth of what this champion has done. They allow themselves to jeopardize her title, to talk about her origins, to disrespect her. At the base, they are sports educators, who allow themselves to talk like that about their entourage, but what a shitty example!"

"We are just young people from immigration who are already in difficulty. These words must not exist with us, I’m not saying they should exist elsewhere, but even less here!" the France Télévisions consultant was outraged. And to conclude: "Sarah, in all the instances, is a respected person. We rarely have someone, in our discipline, I’m talking about boxing, who reaches this intellectual level and there, we disrespect her like that, as if she were a rotten plank... All that we say on a daily basis, it’s useless, because it’s those who are on the ground supposedly who have to preach the right word, good actions, help our children grow, give them hope to flourish, well behind their backs, that’s what they say about our champions and our champions."