Saudi Olympic team - only men aloud

Today the Daily Telegraph reported that Saudi Arabia's National Olympic Committee president Prince Nawaf bin Faisal has publicly stated that he will not endorse Saudi female participation in the London Olympic Games. This means that any budding Saudi female athletes will not be able to compete in London2012 as part of the official delegation, although in theory does not completely prevent a Saudi woman from competing.

No women will be carrying the Saudi flag at London 2012

In reality, I doubt any female from the closed Kingdom will make it to London. With a royal statement against female athlete participation, it is highly unlikely that any patriach of a potential female athlete will risk contradicting Prince Nawaf by allowing one of his female family members to compete for a place at the Games in July and August. 

Whilst this is a great shame, it does not come as a surprise. Saudi Arabia treats is female citizens no better than glorified prisoners. This mal-treatment publicly manifests itself in the form of the black abaya, the plain cloak that all women must wear whenever they are out of the confines of their homes.  It would have been quite out of character for the country's officials to allow female athletes to don lycra and sprint around a running track in front of a potential global audience of 2 billion people.

Whilst Prince Nawaf's decision was to be expected, the fact that Saudi's female athletes will not be part of the country's official Olympic team has at least reminded the international media of the strict conditions under which Saudi women are forced to live. In short, there is now a media storm surrounding the decision and this may benefit Saudi women in the long run, as pressure mounts on King Abdullah to reform policies towards women.

One element of this media storm is being driven by Sue Tibballs, chief executive of the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation. Tibballs, amongst others, is calling for the International Olympic Committee to ban the Saudi delegation from attending London2012, as a consequence for their discriminatory decision. Given that Saudi Arabia have directly violated the Olympic Charter (which states that "any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, sex or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement") there are strong grounds for Tibballs' call. At times Saudi Arabia can be quite sensitive to negative press in the west, given the proximity of the House of Saud with almost all western governments. The optimist in me hopes that this recent negative press will force the Saud's to rethink their policies towards women.

That said, the pessimist in me thinks that after a few days of negative press the media will move on, effectively letting Prince Nawaf off the hook. I very much doubt that the International Olympic Committee will ban Saudi Arabia from London2012. Jaques Rogge risks some angry calls from European leaders if he upsets Saudi Arabia too much. The last thing David Cameron wants is another potential fuel crisis, and nor I suspect to his European counterparts. Sadly, I suspect the Saudi Olympic team will be allowed to proceed with their "only men allowed" policy.