What happened to Tajikistan’s Nurali Emomali who refused to shake hands with Israeli judoka? All about the controversy & injury at the Paris Olympics

By Animesh Pandey

Modified Jul 29, 2024 08:46 GMT

Nurali Emomali is the 2022 World Championships' junior champion and went with high hopes to the 2024 Paris Olympics. Despite a controversy with the Israeli judoka Baruch Shmailov, Emomali went on to compete in the quarterfinals, until disaster struck.

Emomali was competing against Hifumi Abe, the defending champion from the Tokyo Olympics. The competition was intense, until Abe slammed Emomali down on the mat. In order to avoid landing hard, the judoka from Tajikistan almost dislocated his shoulder during his attempt to break the fall, sustaining an injury in his left arm which has forced him out of the tournament.

However, the former junior world champion has not seemed to have received much sympathy publicly. Some even took jibes at Emomali for his behavior in the pre-quarterfinals.

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All about the controversy between Nurali Emomali and Baruch Shmailov

Baruch Shmailov of Israel faced Nurali Emomali of Tajikistan in the Round of 16. Shmailov is an experienced 29-year-old judoka who won the bronze medal at the 2014 Junior World Championships as well as four medals at the Judo World Masters, including a gold in the 2022 edition.

On the other hand, Emomali is a young judoka from Tajikistan eager to gain more experience from the Paris Olympics after having won the gold medal at the 2022 World Championships.

Nurali Emomali after winning against Baruch Shmailov of Israel - Getty Images

Despite an intense face off, Emomali eventually overcame Shmailov with relative ease. However, he refused to shake hands with the Israeli, choosing to shout a religious slogan instead. When he was injured in the next round and subsequently knocked out of competition, several users took to social media to mockingly remark on his fate.

One of them commented:

"Bad sport Nurali Emomali from Tajikistan refused to shake hands with Israeli competitor Baruch Shmailov and shouted "Allah Akbar". Nurali ended up with a dislocated shoulder crying on the mat. Olympic levels of Karma. #Olympics."

This is not the first time an Israeli athlete has faced such discrimination at the Paris Olympics. Moroccan athlete Abderrehmane Boushita, who lost in the previous round to the Israeli judoka, also allegedly refused to shake his hand.

Even at the parade of nations during the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics, some of the spectators booed Israeli athletes. Apart from that, countries like Iran have called for a boycott of the Israeli athletes, and some of them were also issued death threats, following which extra security was provided to the Israeli contingent.