Confirmation fell this Wednesday, May 8, 2024. The Olympic champion Ahmed Ayoub Hafnaoui will not participate in the Paris-2024 Olympics this summer.
The Tunisian swimmer Ahmed Ayoub Hafnaoui, 21, will be the great absent of the Paris-2024 Olympic Games, announced this Wednesday, May 8, 2024, the International Olympic Committee (CIO) without mentioning the reasons for this package.
The president of the Tunisian Olympic Committee (CNOT), Mehrez Boussayène confirmed this package to the African Swimming Confederation, specifies the IOC on its official website, believing that this absence is a real surprise and that Hafnaoui was one of the main contenders for the Olympic medals in the 400m, 800 m and 1500 m.
This announcement puts an end to rumors that were persistent as to a possible absence of the swimmer to the largest sporting event on the planet.
The president of the Tunisian Olympic Committee, Mehrez Boussayene, recently revealed during a television interview that the swimmer could miss the event due to an injury.
According to Boussayene, doctors at the Center for Sports Medicine have recommended a prolonged rest of six weeks in Hafnaoui, making his preparation for the Olympic Games, uncertain.
According to other sources, Hafnaoui, who trained in the United States, until the end of 2023, had to return to Tunisia, invoking a visa problem.
Hafnaoui is now invited to provide the Tunisian swimming federation with a detailed report on the reasons for its withdrawal, especially if it is injured.
Ahmed Hafnaoui had caused a sensation at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021, winning the 400 m, at only 18 years old and having swam in corridor n ° 8, after being the slowest qualified in series.
Last year, at the Worlds, he was crowned over 800 m and 1500 m and won the money from the 400 m freestyle.
It should be noted that Hafnaoui’s last participation in an international competition was at the World Swimming Championships in Doha last February, where he underwent a failure all over the line.
