Germany’s cycling coach apologises and fears the sack after being caught telling rider to ‘get the CAMEL DRIVERS’ while he chased rivals from Algeria and Eritrea in the Olympic time trial, leaving commentators stunned
A German cycling coach has been forced to apologise after being captured on film urging one of his riders to ‘get the camel drivers’ as he chased opponents from Algeria and Eritrea.
Patrick Moster was filmed running behind Nikias Arndt at the Olympic time trial in Tokyo, with microphones clearly picking him up shouting ‘Hol die Kameltreiber! Hol die Kameltreiber’.
Azzedine Lagab (Algeria) and Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Eritrea) had gone out before the German competitor. On German television, ARD commentator Florian Nass was left stunned, branding the comments ‘totally wrong’. ‘Words fail me,’ he added.
A German coach has apologised and fears the sack after being heard yelling a racist slur
‘If I heard that correctly he said ‘get the camel drivers!’ Something like that has no place in sport. This is absolutely underground. Sorry, I can’t think of anything…that is unworthy.’
Moster later said: ‘In the heat of the moment and with the overall burden we have here at the moment, I have missed my choice of words. I am so sorry, I can only sincerely apologize. I didn’t want to disrespect anyone.’
Former cyclist Moster, 54, may now face an anxious wait to see if he holds onto his job.
President of the Germany Olympic Committee, Alfons Hormann, appeared to take a dim view of the coach’s comments. ‘Team Germany stands for adherence to the Olympic values of respect, fair play and tolerance and lives them in all of their sporting competitions,’ he said.
‘It is important that Patrick Moster apologized immediately after the competition. We will seek a personal conversation with him today and deal with the situation,’ Hörman, 50, continued.