Iraq kick off their new era

Tiras Odisho, director general of the Iraqi NOC that was readmitted to the Olympic movement in February, said: "In spite of the bad situation and dire economic problems in Iraq, we will be playing without fear.

"Before, if you made a mistake or if you lost, you got punished. Now a player can shoot at the goal and miss without being afraid."

That was a claim endorsed by Raed Abbas, a 28-year-old baker who will represent Iraq in the martial art of taekwondo.

He said: "Not having Uday around, being able to compete freely and without fear, that is a joy in itself.

"This is everything I dreamed of: to represent my homeland, to compete for Iraq.

"I am not nervous, I am confident. I have seen the competition and with God's help I can beat them."

Amid so much euphoria the sober reality is that Iraq's 29 athletes representing seven sports - football, boxing, swimming, athletics, weightlifting, judo and taekwondo - will almost certainly return home without adding to their country's haul of just one Olympic medal, a weightlifting bronze from the 1960 Games in Rome.

But if the Olympic spirit still counts for anything then having an Iraqi team in Athens is the greatest success of all because its presence truly is the product of an international effort.

Boxer Najah Ali, coached by former American world championship contender Maurice "Termite" Watkins, sparred in London and New York, the weightlifters spent springtime with their United States counterparts at a camp in Colorado, the swimmers used pools in Canada and Kuwait, and the football team toured England.

Ahmed al-Samarrai, president of the new Iraq NOC, said: "The sports field brings together people of all countries, backgrounds and religions.

"In that respect it is emblematic of the new Iraq. Lifting the Iraqi flag over the skies of Athens will be a great defining moment for our country."

Yet it will be a defining moment still touched by danger, even if the haunting shadow of Uday Hussein has been erased, for there are forces at work in Iraq which have no wish to see sport play a role in encouraging peaceful coexistence.

Just last month, in Baghdad, al-Samarrai's two-car convoy was fired on and attacked by grenade-throwers. "I never thought anyone would want to assassinate me," he said.

Also in July, Bernd Stange, a German, resigned as manager of the football team. He explained: "I never got any direct threats, but I was told by German authorities it was best if I left the country."

Watkins knows it is unlikely he can ever return to Hilla, the dusty city just south of Baghdad where he first found the cream of Iraq's boxers training without headguards, gumshields, protectors or boots.

He transformed the team into a symbol of hope even if just one of them, Ali, made it to Athens.

Watkins said: "The bad guys don't want symbols like that. So long as they can keep Iraq in need, they're in control.

"We represent something good and the bad people don't like that. And they sure don't like it because the boxers are dealing with an American."

On-going scandals involving drugs, corruption and obscene expenditure make it easy for cynics to doubt the existence of a true Olympic spirit. But Watkins and Ali surely stand for something special.

Watkins said: "If Najah wins a medal, great. If he doesn't, great. Our whole goal was to see Iraq's flag raised in Athens. That's a symbol that they've won."