Libya’s boxers recover from Qaddafi-era knockout
TRIPOLI: Omar Zlitni holds a decades-old, black-and-white photo of himself as a boxer in his prime, posing in shorts and a training vest before Libya’s then-dictator, Muammar Qaddafi, banned his beloved sport. Boxing was “in his blood,” said the 63-year-old Tripoli resident who proudly keeps the image as his phone’s wallpaper. In 1979, he was just 19 when boxing, along with wrestling and other combat sports, was banned by Qaddafi, who considered such contests a threat to his personality cult. “We were a whole group. We were going to fight in Italy. And then, suddenly, they banned it. Why?” Zlitni said, with anger clouding his usually peaceful face. “There were friendships and love; boxing was everything,” he said, adding he regretted their way of life had been taken away and that “everyone went his own way.”
