Aug 23, 2009

By Tarek Amara and Mohamed Argoubi

TUNIS (Reuters) - For Tunisian boxer Naoufel Ben Rabah, abandoning his national team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics seemed a matter of necessity, not choice.

Born in a slum on the edge of the capital Tunis, Ben Rabah wanted to box his family's way out of poverty but decided the money he earned as one of Tunisia's leading light-welterweights was not going to make it happen.

He left his squad in Sydney, applied to box in Australia and became an Australian citizen.

"In Tunisia my salary was no more than $200 a month and now I get $2,000 a week in Australia. Being poor has become a thing of the past," said Ben Rabah during a visit to his home country.

The lure of foreign climes can prove irresistible for athletes from poorer countries where national coaches run the risk of defections when their teams travel abroad to compete.

A wealth of talent but a dearth of funding has left North African countries especially vulnerable.

Four Tunisians athletes disappeared at the Sydney Games. Three Egyptian boxers fled abroad in 2007 during preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

At the recent Mediterranean Games in Pescara, Italy, five Tunisian athletes disappeared along with others from Algeria, Morocco and Egypt.

Rashid Ramzi, a native of Safi in Morocco, switched colors to Bahrain in 2002 and became the first athlete in history to win gold in 800 and 1,500 meters in the same world championships in Helsinki in 2005.

However, Ramzi faces a two-year ban after testing positive for doping after last year's Beijing Olympics where he won the 1,500 meters.

HEAD COACH

"It's certain that the flight of athletes is a dangerous phenomenon and there is no excuse for it," said Hassan Maleki, head coach at the Tunisian Boxing Federation, who called such defections a "virus."

The number of departures by high-level athletes is now threatening the future of individual sports in Tunisia, said Younus Chettali, vice-president of Tunisia's Olympic Committee.

"It's no surprise that athletes think of fleeing to Western countries. We know their wages are relatively poor."

He said the committee was trying to stop it happening by stepping up supervision of athletes and providing them with special grants to train and to study.

reuters