Yemen Monitor/ Exclusive
The war in Yemen has negatively impacted all sectors in the country, including sports, which has faced numerous crises in recent years due to the events.
Sameer Al-Yafei, a member of the Yemeni national athletics team participating in the Paris Olympics, said that “before the war, my father worked as a teacher and received a salary, but after the war, salaries stopped, which affected our living conditions.”
In a statement to the BBC, he added that “Yemen does not have a track or training facilities. Due to the war, we no longer have capabilities and there are no tournament participations. The training we do is on the street on asphalt.”
He noted that there are no 50-meter Olympic swimming pools in Yemen, so they have resorted to open water.
For his part, Fouad Yassin, the coach of the Yemeni national swimming team, said that there are no standard-sized swimming pools in Yemen to train in, and that they used to train players in an 11-meter pool, noting that the turnout for sports has decreased significantly, as there is no safety or amenities, and most of the training places have been hit.
