A German Olympic cycling coach is at the centre of a racism scandal at the Tokyo Olympics after he was heard on TV urging one of his country’s participants in the event to “catch the camel riders.”
Patrick Moster, aged 54, shouted the words at Nikias Arndt as he passed through a feed zone, with riders Azzedine Lagab of Algeria and Eritrea’s Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (both pictured below) immediately ahead of him on the Fuji Speedway course.
Arndt, who finished 19th, was in the first wave of riders to start the event earlier today, and had already caught and passed Iranian rider Saeeid Safarzadeh as well as Ahmad Badreddin Wais of the Refugee Olympic Team, who is from Syria.
“I’m so sorry. I can only apologize for the words I said,” Moster told the German news agency SID afterwards, as reported by Eurosport.de.
“There is a lot of stress and it’s hectic at the moment, but that is not an excuse,” he added. “That must not happen.”
The German national Olympic committee, the DBOS, will hold a meeting with Moster later today to discuss the incident.
In a statement, DBOS president Alfons Hörmann said: “Team D stands for adherence to the Olympic values of respect, fair play and tolerance and lives them in all their sporting competitions.
“It is important that Patrick Moster apologised immediately after the competition,” he added.
33 thoughts on “German Olympic cycling coach caught on TV making racist comment during men’s time trial”
Is this really racism? It was
Is this really racism? It was certainly a stupid thing to say, it’s unprofessional, it’s immature, it’s condescending, he certainly should not have said it, and I agree with Chris’s comment that the athletes deserve better. But he made no reference to race, skin colour, etc. There are (or were) multiple races of people who used camels as a form of transport. It’s a custom of some cultures in some parts of the world. It’s just not accurate to call this racism, but I suppose it gets clicks (and yes, it worked on me; I see the irony). All it really was is a stupid joke, so by all means say that somebody made a stupid and possibly offensive joke but to call it racist just seems gratuitous and divisive to me. Maybe I’m just jaded from all the myriad of accusations of racism we see flying around the media these days. Rant over.
Incidently I doubt the riders he was referring to have ever ridden a camel.
portec wrote:
Yes, yes it is.
And that is exactly why it is racist.
I think you missed my point.
I think you missed my point. Riding a camel is not connected to race or ethnicity.
Sausage-eaters, sauerkrauts?
Sausage-eaters, sauerkrauts? Them neither.
portec wrote:
And yet he wouldn’t have used that phrase if the riders were European/American etc.
You could use the phrase “tea-drinkers” (deliberately non-offensive example) to refer to British people even though drinking tea is also not connected to race or ethnicity.
I agree but I’m struggling to
I agree but I’m struggling to see how that’s an argument against what I’m saying. If the riders were European/American there are other derogatory phrases that could be used to the same effect. Or if they were from any other part of the world. I’m not going to say any of them but I think we could all name a few. And like the comment made by the German coach, few if any are racially-based, but more to do with culture or nationality. And of course they might still be derogatory, disrespectful, etc.
I’m not sure where the line
I’m not sure where the line is between race/culture/nationality and I’m not convinced that it is meaningful. If someone uses derogatory terms that rely on the target’s culture or nationality, then most of the time, I’d consider that to be racist.
I disagree with your second
I disagree with your second sentence. Criticism of a nationality is clearly not racist. If somebody criticises British people what race(s) are they criticising? We have people from all races born here and living here. To a lesser extent it’s the same for culture. Many cultural norms are shared by multiple racial groups. Some cultural norms are shared by ALL racial groups.
Another point I’d make is that intent matters. I can see the point people are trying to make but that point heavily relies on assuming the German coach’s intent to be racist. Perhaps I’m overly trusting and too “glass half full” but I don’t think many people would intentionally shout out a racist comment in public at the biggest sporting event in the world where there are TV cameras nearby broadcasting the event to every country in the world. I think what most likely happened is that in the heat of the moment in a high-pressure environment he made a stupid comment without thinking that some people have chosen to interpret as racist, based on assumptions derived from a few sentences on a web site.
I don’t think that intent is
I don’t think that intent is that important as there’s a lot of ingrained racist attitudes in cultures, so people can use phrases such as “yellow peril” without realising the history and meaning of the term.
Again, I don’t think that it’s particularly useful to differentiate between what constitutes a race or a culture as the whole basis of splitting up humans into races is itself flawed.
“Camel jockey” is a well
“Camel jockey” is a well known ethnic slur for an Arab.
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/camel_jockey
I have no idea why you’re trying to defend this, but you’re wrong. Please stop.
Maybe it is to you. Not to me
Maybe it is to you. Not to me. And what exactly do you think I’m defending? If it’s what I think you’re trying to say that’s sinking pretty low and I have nothing to say to you.
portec wrote:
You are defending clear and obvious racism and you’re either very stupid or racist yourself to think you’re not. “I doubt any of them have ever ridden a camel”? Oh so can we call Arabs “towelheads” on the basis that actually they don’t technically wear towels on their heads? No good getting on your high horse, you’ve been rumbled and called, move on.
I think you’re defending
I think you’re defending racist language.
It’s not about whether it is to me or to you. It’s a well-known slur and is therefore highly likely to be offensive to those it’s aimed at.
How on earth is ‘heat of the
How on earth is ‘heat of the moment’ an excuse.
portec wrote:
The point is that “race” is a cultural construct, not a biological or genetic category, and so comments about, say, skin colour, are meant to be offensive towards particular groups of people, just like comments about shagging sheep or anything of this kind.
portec wrote:
really? not a term that he would use to describe any arab, but not europeans. Quite clearly the basis for his choice of words was purely the ethnicity of the two riders ahead of his rider.
Or are you suggesting he is not making an assumption based on their race and instead knows for a fact that both these riders own or race camels?
That seems quite implausible.
wycombewheeler wrote:
From my first post:
Dude. It’s time to stop and
Dude. It’s time to stop and reflect. If you don’t get it, it’s time to put the effort in to make sure you do get it. Otherwise you are part of the problem (even if not deliberately).
Assuming you’re UK based Brit(ish) is a great book that explores subtle racism here. It’s a good read. https://www.waterstones.com/book/brit-ish/afua-hirsch/9781784705039
If you’re having the “was
If you’re having the “was that racist?” conversation, then chances are you know the answer deep down. Appreciating that you didn’t make the comment in question, but since you seem to want to die on this hill, this is you:
There comes a point where the
There comes a point where the sensible choice is to step away from your keyboard and stop using it is a shovel.
Whether he intended it to be racist is irrelevent. It is how the comment was perceived and there are few people that would disagree that referring to Arabic riders as Camel Drivers is anything other than derogatory.
Is throwing a banana at a black footballer therefore not racist if you happen to know for a fact that they don’t like bananas?
This is not about riding a
This is not about riding a camel, manifestly. This is about referring to an ethnicity/nationality/other by association to an activity (typically involving animals) in a stereotypical, demonstrably false and derogative way.
portec wrote:
Neither is throwing spears…
Yes.
Yes.
Curious to know how much
Curious to know how much racism you have experienced in your life?
It’s a lot more nuanced than you think.
“It is important that Patrick
“It is important that Patrick Moster apologised immediately after the competition,” he added.
Immediately after his racist comments were exposed to the whole world more like. If they hadn’t been witnessed he would not have been forced to apologize but they would still have been made and he would still be a racist.
This really touched a nerve
This really touched a nerve with me. It takes tremendous courage as an amateur rider to pitch up and race against the elite pros. Anna Kiesenhofer kind of did it, though she freely admits that whilst she doesn’t have a pro licence atm, she trains like a pro and indeed held a pro contract until recently. That’s why I had tears in my eyes watching her win: that’s the Olympic spirit. Patrick Moster’s behaviour was the antithesis of this. Let’s hope he’s ashamed of himself at the very least.
But this also touched a nerve because one of my best mates is an outlier in an elite sport. He’s a very, very good CX skier who took up CX skiing very late in life (i.e. he’s not Norwegian and hasn’t been skiing since he was knee high). But he has represented his country – a non skiing nation – at the World Cup aged 45 (120th out of 130 from recollection) and was a team leader for his country in South Korea. He takes it in his stride, but, as someone who has acute fear of failure, I’m in awe. To compete against Vegard Ulvang (google him) at his age is temerity, but it takes courage – bags of courage – and the type few of us have. I guess you’re always going to have one or two fat idiots laughing from the side of the road…but a coach should know better.
Team D stand for respect for
‘Team D stands for respect for fair play and tolerance’….with a tiny bit of casual racism…. There aren’t many Pro Team riders from the African continent, the Middle East, or Asia for that matter – but when they turn up and do their best against the world’s elite riders. They deserve better than this.
That said, I look forward to the Primal Iranian Olympic jersey…
well said.
well said.
Sent home now
Sent home now
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/58008797
Was their a reason he would
Was their a reason he would have stayed anyway? Track cycling, maybe the Para’s I suppose unless his remit was only the road teams.
Also anyway know his official tilte. Some publications state Official, some Coach, some a Sporting Director.(as if multiple). some THE Sporting Director as if he is the main person, and the linked article above states “Boss”.
Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier is
Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier is from Eritrea not Algeria. You got it right in the header, it would have been good to get it right in the text too. Yes, I know, proofreading is something nobody can pay for nowadays.
“Criticism of a nationality
“Criticism of a nationality is clearly not racist.”
Correct but wrong. Terms like Frog, Kraut, Godon, les rosbifs, are not racist but they are intented to be offensive descriptors of groups of people as one homogenous mass. Whether that group is a nation, a race, a culture or even something participatory such as cyclists, is actually not relevant.
Bmblbzzz wrote:
Does that include terms such as “cheese-eating surrender-monkey?”