French basketball star resigns as Olympics ambassador over anti-Semitism row
Olympic Basketball 2009 meadlist, Emilie Gomis, has resigned as ambassador of the Paris Olympics Games after the organising committee held a meeting on Wednesday to address a controversy linked to a social media post about the Gaza war made by the former sports star.
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Update 08h00 UT: Emilie Gomis, the French basketball star serving as an ambassador for the Paris 2024 Olympics, has been forced to quit her role because of a controversy linked to a social media post related to the situation in Gaza.
Following an urgent meeting of the Paris 2024’s board and general assembly on Wednesday, Gomis submitted her resignation.
Paris organisers said in a statement late Wednesday that Gomis was given the opportunity to clarify her position during the meeting.
Paris organizers however said that Gomis, who won a silver medal for France at the 2012 Olympics, was no longer in a position to continue her mission because her social media post “contravened her duty of neutrality.
Two days after Hamas' surprise attack on Israel, Gomis posted an Instagram story on 9 October which showed maps of France being gradually covered by the flag of Israel, accompanied by a question that read "What would you do in this situation?"
Critics accused the former basketball player of anti-Semitism and supporting Hamas' attack, which Gomis has strongly denied.
The controversy surrounding Gomis, a retired Franco-Senegalese athlete who played for France for over 10 year – winning a Euro title in 2009 – is the latest thorny issue to face the Paris Games, which is already beset by geopolitical strains from the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
🇫🇷👉🇮🇱Emilie Gomis, a former basketball player and ambassador for the 2024 Olympics, has been fired on charges of anti-Semitism for posting maps of France from 1947, 1967 and then 2023 pic.twitter.com/0eoyVBcQey
— Hawkeye1812Z (@Hawkeye1745) January 3, 2024
'Appease and welcome'
"I have scheduled an administrative board meeting for today to decide on this issue", Paris 2024 head Tony Estanguet told France Inter radio ahead of Wedneseday's meeting.
"It's an important subject, because all the representatives of Paris 2024 today have a responsibility to appease and welcome all nations, because we will host the world from July 26", he added.
Gomis has since issued an apology.
"The accusations of anti-Semitism I am facing are in total contradiction with the values that were instilled in me and that sport taught me," Gomis said in a later social media post, apologising to "those who felt hurt".
Her Instagram account currently has 17.7 thousand followers.
.@TonyEstanguet sur la polémique autour d’Émilie Gomis : "Tous les représentants de Paris 2024 ont une responsabilité d'apaisement, d'accueil de toutes les nations" #le710Inter pic.twitter.com/2ulicr7svv
— France Inter (@franceinter) January 10, 2024
Paris 2024 says it wants a joyous and safe Olympics for all, but organisers are worried that the event could get caught up in politics amid continuing wars in Gaza and Ukraine and France's own internal security challenges.
"It's obvious that the international context is particularly tense today," Estanguet said.
He had brought the Gomis case to the ethics committee which last month stated Gomis' post constituted "a serious breach ... of the ethical obligations."
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