Will Emilie Gomis remain ambassador for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games? The Organizing Committee will meet at the beginning of January, as its president Tony Estanguet announced on December 20, in order to decide. The former basketball player is at the heart of a controversy after an Instagram publication on October 9, two days after the attacks perpetrated by Hamas in Israel.
Emilie Gomis had shared a message in which we saw maps of France from 1947, 1967 and 2023, on which the tricolor flag covering French territory is gradually replaced by the Israeli flag, with this question: “What would you do in this situation ?»
On Monday, December 11, the Paris 2024 Ethics Committee advocated its exclusion, considering that “the publication can also be legitimately interpreted as suggesting that the France of 2023, whose map is dominated by the Star of David, is , it too, ”invaded by the Jews”’. In an interview with the newspaper L’Équipe, Gomis (40 years old) returned to the subject at length. She affirms that her publication “never heard a response to the attack of October 7” and that “this massacre, obviously I do not condone it”.
Emilie Gomis says she wanted to “only invite (her) subscribers to think about the current context which, I think, goes beyond everyone”. “I am of African origin and of dual French-Senegalese nationality,” adds Gomis. Colonization raises questions that we talk about every day there, and to which I am very sensitive.” Born in Ziguinchor in Senegal and arrived in France at the age of 6, the former basketball player has 194 caps with Les Bleues, and notably won the European Championship in 2009.
“Of course I condemn” the atrocities of Hamas, Gomis continues. “I said this in particular to the Minister of Sports in my letter” dated December 8. Furthermore, the ambassador is aware that her publication went unnoticed before re-emerging via a screenshot on November 30 on LinkedIn and Twitter. “A witch hunt has been launched. My status (as ambassador, editor’s note) was targeted,” denounces Gomis.
The former Villeneuve-d’Ascq player says she is “a thousand miles from any anti-Semitism” and is “aware of the inadequate timing” of her publication. “But I think that all of my commitments and the rest of my career argue for my being granted the right to make a mistake,” she adds.
Emilie Gomis also spoke of the cyberharassment of which she has been the victim for almost a month: “I rediscovered that I was an immigrant. That I had been naturalized. These are things that happen when we are no longer in the realm of excellence: we are reminded of our origins. They would like to take away my nationality. I’m rediscovering racism.” On several occasions throughout the interview, the former resident of Tarbes, Valenciennes and Toulouse “reiterates (her) apologies”. “The only thing I can advocate today is that there be a ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas, she concludes.
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