An Olympic marathon runner has divided the internet over footage that shows him knocking over a table of water bottles, depriving his thirsty competitors the chance to hydrate during their race.
Morhad Amdouni has denied that he knocked over the bottles on purpose and blamed the incident on the bottles being “slippery.”
Footage of the water bottles being knocked over by Amdouni during the Tokyo 2020 men’s marathon event quickly made rounds online.
Thoughts on Amdouni knocking over an entire row of water before taking the last one? pic.twitter.com/qrPaSzxLBW
— Ben St Lawrence (@bennysaint) August 8, 2021
Always opinionated broadcaster Piers Morgan chimed in to criticise Amdouni’s actions - and he didn’t hold back.
“The gold medal for biggest d*ckhead of the Tokyo Olympics goes to French marathon runner Morhad Amdouni who deliberately knocks over all the water for his fellow competitors…Unbelievable!”
BREAKING: The Gold medal for biggest d*ckhead of the Tokyo Olympics goes to French marathon runner Morhad Amdouni who deliberately knocks over all the water for his fellow competitors…Unbelievable! pic.twitter.com/D4IwmlAHlL
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) August 8, 2021
It appears that other people also agreed with Piers’ take.
I’m fairly certain he wasn’t practicing a dominoes trick, there is only one reason he did that and he should hang his head in shame, hopefully upon reflection he will realize what a selfish act that was.
— Warren Sumner (@Warren_Sumner) August 8, 2021
@MorhadAmdouni it is clear from video you where trying to stop the man in front of you from getting water. I hope you are thrown out of sports.
— Jerilyn A. Schultz (@jerilyn_schultz) August 9, 2021
Some people have tried to defend him saying it's hard to grab those drinks while running. But, he's looking down exactly at what he's doing, and didn't have any trouble in grabbing the last one.
— Chester Payne (@saldiven) August 9, 2021
No one else had a problem grabbing one bottle. Have to think this was intentional.
— Gieusahaggis (@Gieusahaggis1) August 8, 2021
Though there were people online that defended the marathon runner, who noted how physically exhausting the event can be.
He's not next to the table. He's having to bend and stretch whilst running at speed. He's sandwiched between other runners. No doubt absolutely knackered by the heat & humidity. Benefit of the doubt, it was an accident.
— Glyn Sexton (@glynster61) August 8, 2021
Of course people will say it was cheating and poor sportsmanship...They have never been pushed to the point of exhaustion and almost passing out...he was clearly not trying to knock all that water over... #poorlosers #MorhadAmdouni
— Bob Paquette (@BobTheDaddyP) August 10, 2021
After re-watching it- his face and body position, I think it was actually an accident! And everyone who thinks it was on purpose needs to watch his face. Also, realise the video is slowed.
— Limnetic V (@LimneticV) August 8, 2021
1/ Completely unintentional. Better quality and longer video of the event shows he tried to grab at the bottles multiple times, they get knocked out of his hand by the next bottle sitting on the table. There are 2 more tables a few meters later that have plenty of bottles for
— Colin (@thehardy1) August 8, 2021
Going 20km an hour sitting right behind athlete in front, Olympic marathon genuine mistake! You can obviously see he is just trying to grab one. Taken out of context, watch the next 10 seconds, numerous water tables.
— Mr Roberts 🏔⛺️ (@MrRobertsGeog) August 8, 2021
Due to the mounting backlash, Amdouni has since posted a response on his Facebook page to explain how he didn’t knock the water bottles over on purpose.
The video and Amdouni’s Facebook page now appears to be set as private.
He added a short message to summarise what had happened. Amdouni wrote: “To put an end to all the sterile polemics in the video, I put this video to actually understand what happened.”
The 33-year-old explained: “To guarantee freshness to the bottles, these are soaked in water which makes them slippery. However, it is clear that I am trying to get one from the beginning of the row but these barely slide we touch them.
“With fatigue and all that, I was gradually starting to lose lucidity and energy, while hanging on.”
Amdouni appeared remorseful, as he said sorry: “I would like to apologise to the athletes. At one point, I was trying to be able to hold a bottle of water but I dropped some. It was not easy, trying to be able to hang on.
“In principle, I try to be able to share also during the race, the bottles of water, while respecting everyone and going high and proud, to be able to fight for our colours of the jersey.”
In the end, the French marathon runner finished in 17th place with a time of 2:14.33, with Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge winning gold with a time of 2:08.18.
