The former basketball player of the French team, Émilie Gomis, will be excluded from the athletes’ commission of the CNOSF (French National Olympic and Sports Committee) and should also soon lose her position as ambassador of the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games. Paris 2024. The ex-back of the Blues is sanctioned for having posted a message on social networks attacking Israel’s policies, two days after the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7.
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Taking a position on the conflict between Israel and Hamas is a risky choice, especially when you are a former high-level sportswoman, member of the CNOSF – the French Olympic committee – and the organizing committee for the Paris 2024 Games, supposed to respect political neutrality.
On October 9, French fullback Émilie Gomis (194 caps) republished on her Instagram account a publication featuring three maps of France on three different dates (1947, 1967 and 2023). Between the first and third, the colors of the French flag are gradually reduced in favor of the Israeli flag, a development overcome by this question: “ What would you do in this situation? »
The message only remained online for 24 hours, and it could have remained relatively unnoticed if the ex-player, faced with the outcry on the Web, had not herself given it a completely different dimension on November 30, in apologizing for this post, while brushing off accusations of anti-Semitism, “ in total contradiction with the values that were instilled in me”. And to add that “ his thoughts were with all the innocent victims affected by wars and barbaric acts “.
Firmness on ethics
Case closed? Far from there. The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, alerted by a collective, was outraged by the message to the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castera, who received a letter of apology from Émilie Gomis on December 8 and demanded that the 2012 Olympic vice-champion be removed from her position within Paris 2024.
Since November 2021, she has been one of the ambassadors of “Terre de Jeux”, a program to promote local communities that promote the practice of sport. She has also been a member of the Board of Directors since October 2022. Upon request, the Ethics Committee of the organizing committee (Cojo) ruled on December 11 for her exclusion for “ lack of respect for the duty of confidentiality », and on the grounds that his apologies “ were not likely to mitigate the seriousness of the breach noted “.
An extraordinary general meeting is scheduled for January 10 to make the final decision. The CNOSF will dismiss it this Thursday, January 4 on the basis of an opinion from its Ethics Committee dated December 22.
Clumsiness and room for error
Émilie Gomis, however, tried everything to try to justify herself. In a daily interview The Team of December 23, she repeats that she does not condone or legitimize the massacre of October 7, “ be aware of the inadequate timing of its publication », while admitting to being very sensitive to questions linked to colonization, she who is Franco-Senegalese.
An interest which has also prompted him, in the past, to indiscriminately relay the comments of controversial activists fueling anti-French sentiment in Africa. If she recognizes “ his clumsiness » in this story, Émilie Gomis also claims her freedom of expression and warns that she will take legal action if the sanctions are confirmed. She pleads the right to make mistakes, but some can cost more than others.
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