An American Fencer Was Flown To The Olympics In A Separate Plane To Keep Him Away From Women
Alen Hadzic was picked to represent Team USA at the Olympics despite multiple sexual misconduct allegations.
Team USA fencer Alen Hadzic has been isolated from fellow athletes, but is still allowed to attend the Tokyo Olympics Games, despite three sexual misconduct allegations against him.
Six female fencers, including two Olympic athletes, wrote to the US Olympic Committee to raise their concerns after Hadzic was picked to represent their country, according to BuzzFeed News.
The 29-year-old denies the claims, but his attorney admitted he was suspended from Columbia University in 2013 after being investigated over sexual consent concerns.
Instead of seeing through his temporary prohibition from going to Tokyo, a ‘safety plan’ was instead hatched by the USA Fencing organisation to keep Hadzic out of the Olympic Village and away from female competitors.
He was flown in on a separate plane from his teammates, and is staying in a hotel nearby the Olympic Training Centre. Hadzic had tried to appeal the restrictions, calling them “arbitrary and unnecessary” in a complaint, but was knocked back.
“We are pissed off that this is even a thing we had to deal with,” an unnamed Olympic fencer told BuzzFeed. “He’s been protected over and over.”
If only the arm-chair experts were as vocal about Alen Hadzic as they are about Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka. #Olympics
— David Pires (@davidmpires) July 27, 2021
As an alternate in the men’s épée event, Hadzic will only step in if a teammate falls ill or becomes injured.
US Olympic fencing members feel they have to “deal with the consequences of having a predator on the team, while simultaneously competing in the biggest event of our lives,” another BuzzFeed.
People are angry that he might have a shot at competing, when fellow American Sha’Carri Richardson was banned from the Games when she tested positive to weed after learning of the death of her mother.
So Sha’Carri can’t compete because of THC but Alen Hadzic can just sexually assault women and that’s ok??? #Olympics
— Sara Calderon (@saritaluisa) July 28, 2021
Sports journalist Jemele Hill said the Hadzic’s opportunity was proof the Committee “doesn’t give a fuck about women”.
(Image source: Marie-Lan Nguyen)