Egyptian swimmer Abdelrahman Elaraby wins gold but 'got death threats for Palestine support'

An Egyptian swimmer's gold medal win at the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup became a sombre event after he said he had been receiving death threats for expressing solidarity with Palestine amid Israel's devastating bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Abdelrahman Elaraby won the hotly contested Men's 50m Butterfly final on Sunday at the meet in Athens, Greece – but after the race, he said the suffering of Palestinians and fears for his own safety left him feeling unable to celebrate the win.

"I don't know if I can celebrate this, honestly. It's been a really mentally tough week for me. I've been getting death threats, people have been attacking me all week for supporting Palestine," the 23-year-old said in a post-race interview.

"My family goes to sleep not knowing if I'm going to wake up tomorrow, if someone's going to break into my room, somebody's going to break into my apartment... my brothers and sisters are being killed in Palestine right now and I'm threatened... just because it's a cause I'm standing for."

Elaraby had been posting on social media in solidarity with Palestinians after Israel began a relentless bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip on 7 October, following a surprise attack on Israeli territory. 

Some 3,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's bombing on the besieged enclave, two-thirds of them women and children.

Posting to Instagram last week, Elaraby said he had been "unfairly labelled and accused of promoting terrorism" while expressing solidarity.

"The loss of innocent lives in any conflict is a tragedy that should be mourned by all, regardless of their background," adding that he has "never condoned or celebrated such losses".

Social media users and some Egyptian news sites had claimed that Elaraby had been deliberately excluded from official photos of the winners taken at the tournament because of his pro-Palestine stance, leaving comments underneath World Aquatics posts asking where Elaraby was.

You missed the Gold Medalist for 50 m Abdelrahman ElAraby.
As sport usually supports the meaning of freedom, equality, and justice for all, what you have done is disgraceful. Shame on you. #SWC23 https://t.co/48QGRsLXpz pic.twitter.com/t4LzAxIPeJ

— NMAZ (@NMAZNMAZ) October 16, 2023

However, a communications officer for World Aquatics told The New Arab that it "did not delete any social media posts or crop him out of an image".

It said of one of its posts targeted on social media that the image is of the top-three scoring male and female athletes", and that Elaraby did not feature in the image because he "was not among the top three male point scorers from the meet".

The interview in which Elaraby spoke of his solidarity with Palestine and made claims of death threats can also be found on World Aquatics' YouTube channel, the officer from the water sports body noted.