Fighting for a new government and an Olympic medal

"He is a hero for all the Yemeni youth, actually for all Arabs." Jalal al Abdili beams with pride when he speaks about his friend and fellow judoka Ali Khousrof. They have been training together in the National Judo Centre since they were little boys.
By Judith Spiegel
I meet him on one of those training days. Khousrof (22) is just back from training camp in Uzebkistan and is off to Japan tonight for three more weeks of training. In between he visits his friends at the Judo Centre. They shake hands and make jokes.

Khousrof changes into his judo-outfit. A few minutes later he throws his friend on the floor. ‘Bang’, dust flies up from the mat. Shoulder throw, hip throw, bang, bang, bang. Off the mat, Khousrof is kind, polite and good looking.
Khousrof is one of the four athletes who will represent Yemen at the Olympic Games. One of his team-mates is a taekwondo practitioner, the other two are runners, one of them a woman. Khousrof also represented Yemen during the Games in Beijing 2008. He lost in the second round.
Athlete and revolutionary
Jalal interrupts his training, eager to tell more about his friend. Panting, covered in sweat, he walks to the visitor with the notebook, big smile on his face. ‘You need to know this. When he came back from Qatar the road to the airport was blocked with cars, they all came to welcome Ali back to Yemen.’
That was December 2011, when Khousrof won a gold medal in the Arab Games. And his achievement was even more remarkable because he had just recovered from a gunshot wound in his abdomen. Khousrof is not just a talented judoka; he is also one of the thousands of young people who joined Yemen’s revolution.
In spring 2011 during one of the demonstrations against the regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh he got shot, thus jeopardizing his judo-career, but that is not how Khousrof sees it. ‘Things have to change in this country, this is my strong belief,’ he says, putting his hand on his heart.
Government promises broken
It is not hard to see where this belief is coming from. The National Judo Centre is only grand in name. In reality it is a dimly lit run down building with a corrugated roof, hot in summer, leaking in the rainy season. Inside, dust is everywhere. Judo is neglected, like all sports in Yemen.
‘The government promised us a new building years ago,’ Khousrof says. He laughs for he knows that promises made by the Yemeni government don’t count for much. ‘We had a bad government, a bad president.’ Whether the transitional government cares more about sports remains to be seen.
Begging for support
It is not only the government that does not care. Yemen’s Olympic Team could not find any local sponsors. ‘We have sent begging letters to them, but they are not interested,’ says Abdullah Al Kibsi, vice-secretary general of the Yemen National Olympic Committee.
‘Companies want something in return for their money, and they don’t see that with sports,’ Al Kibsi adds. ‘Our sportsmen are not popular’. It doesn’t help that sports like taekwondo and judo are not the sexiest to broadcast. For Khousrof’s friends, this is all irrelevant.
Jalal leaves the mat, again attracted by my notebook. ‘When Ali won the Arab Games, he gave his golden medal to the youth of the revolution.’ Meanwhile Khousrof pulls himself up from the iron bar that is welded to the wall. Two of his colleagues hold the poles firmly, afraid the ramshackle frame will collapse.
Doing his best
Khousrof winds up his training session to prepare for his trip to Japan. ‘I like their culture, their food.’ Judo and Japan run in his family. His uncle was the first Yemeni ever to get the black belt. ‘This was in 1988, he got it from Japan.’ Will Khousrof become the first Yemeni to win a golden medal in the Olympic Games, or any medal for that matter?
‘I am not thinking about a golden medal yet, I am only thinking about training as hard as I can.’ He taps on his abdomen, thanking god that at least he is back on the mat. He knows how happy he could make Yemen in these times of chaos, poverty and instability. ‘I am doing my best, please pray for me.’