Iraq at the 1948 Summer Olympics
| Iraq at the 1948 Summer Olympics |
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| IOC code | IRQ | ||||||||
| NOC | National Olympic Committee of Iraq | ||||||||
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| in London | |||||||||
| Competitors | 12 in 2 sports | ||||||||
| Medals |
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| Summer Olympics appearances (overview) | |||||||||
Iraq competed in the Summer Olympic Games for the first time at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, England, under the name of the Hashmite Kingdom of Iraq. The country participated in two sports, athletics and basketball, sending a total of 12 athletes.
Akram Fahmi led the Iraqi Delegation and arrived weeks before the start of the tournament in order to co-ordinate with the other delegations and the organizing committee and checking the times in which the Iraqi athletes will compete at. According to Nori Ahmed the head of physical education at the time in an interview with the Time magazine in Baghdad that Iraqi athletes have never stepped foot outside Iraq, therefore a short training camp in Damascus was set.A committee of 4 men,Akram Fahmi,Nori Ahmed,Abdulmajed Al Samar'e and Father Sylvian chose who will participate in the olympics. The Iraqi Delegation left Iraq by air on July the 17th 1948 and was welcomed by a representative of the Olympic committee in addition to a representative of the host committee and Akram Fahmi. In The opening ceremony the Delegation wore a green jacket with the Iraqi Badge and a white shirt,trousers and shoes.
Iraq sent 2 athletes in their inaugural appearance in Olympics. The Committee chose Salman Ali, a 22 year old who was in the Karkh high school participated in the Men's 100 metres.Salman was in heat seven and finished last,therefore being eliminated in the first round.Ali also participates in the Men's 200 metres race,finishing last in heat four.By participating he became the only Iraqi athlete to ever participate in two different events in the same Olympic games. The Committee also chose Labib Hasso,a 20 year old Medical Student participated in the Men's 400 Meters.He was in heat three and finished last with a time of 56.8, the worst in the entire competition.
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