More information has been revealed about the status of Tunisian swimmer and reigning 400 freestyle Olympic champion Ahmed Hafnaoui, as he told Tunisian news network AFP on Wednesday that he was currently suffering from an injury, but did not rule himself out of the Paris 2024 Olympic games completely.
“I’m currently suffering from an injury, and I don’t know whether or not I will participate in the Olympics,” Hafnaoui said.
The nature of Hafnaoui’s injury was not disclosed.
Hafnaoui’s mother Amira also said that her son’s absence in Paris was not confirmed, but the top priority is still his health.
“Even if he is absent, Ahmed is an Olympic champion and has achieved international recognition despite his young age, and there is still a long way to go before him to achieve the best. The priority currently is his physical and mental health,” Amira Hafnaoui said.
On Tuesday, Africa Aquatics initially reported that Hafnaoui would be missing the 2024 Paris Olympics, and that he longer planned on training in the United States under Mark Schubert. This news was also affirmed Tuesday by Mehrez Boussayene, the head of the Tunisian Olympic Committee. However, on Wednesday, he told AFP that nothing had been confirmed of Hafnaoui’s status yet.
See Also:
- Defending 400 Freestyle Olympic Champion Ahmed Hafnaoui Will Miss Paris Olympics
- Ahmed Hafnaoui: I’m Applying For A New Visa For The U.S. To Swim In California
Hafnaoui was one of the gold medal favorites in the 400, 800, and 1500 free events. At the 2023 World Championships, he won gold in the latter two events while taking silver in the former, becoming a top six performer of all-time in all three events. If he competes in Paris, he will have the change to pass Oussama Mellouli, who has a total of two gold medals and one bronze, to become Tunisia’s most decorated Olympic swimmer.
“More than just medals, we seek above all the well-being of this young man who brought us so much joy,” Boussayene said of Hafnaoui. “He will have other world competitions.”
My selfish initial reaction whenever a swimmer doesn’t disclose their injury or issues is “why not just tell us what’s going on?”. Then a second later I come back down and realize it’s a human being and it’s just swimming. It does suck whenever we don’t get to see a swimmer in their optimal condition when it appears they are at their apparent peak. But, it’s just swimming and it’s not the most important thing to the swimmer (health) and certainly shouldn’t be important enough to me to truly get upset about. I’m getting better at it.
Good luck young man
I look forward to hearing about the undisclosed ‘something’.
a mental injury is also painful.
A Tunisian, an Aussie and an Irishman walk into a bar. The bartender says, I fink you are Bobby’s fathers
A German who was in the bar: hold my beer
Probably could have inverted your like/dislike ratio if you made Finke the father in the joke 🙂
It’s a very “dad” thing to chase down your son at the end of a race!
Damn true that
It’s time to send a famous French detective to investigate:
Lugash, Tunisia …..it’s all the same to me.
The plot thickens ………..
He’s suffering from Finkitis. Not surprised, it’s a common affliction among swimmers.
Yeah, Finke really terrified Hafnaoui in Fukuoka
Someone didn’t watch 2023 World Championship
“More than just medals, we seek above all the well-being of this young man who brought us so much joy,” Boussayene said. “He will have other world competitions.”
—
Ameen!
I like this positive support from Tunisian Olympic Committee (looking at you, Hungarian swimming federation!)
Was gonna say this feels like a tale of 2 federations. One is optimistic and supports their athletes the other doesn’t care about supporting their athletes and only seems to care about success no matter the cost.