German Olympic cycling coach caught on TV making racist comment during men’s time trial

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.