I remember something about what the Husseins did to their unsuccessful athletes. Wasn’t there a mummy’s tomb that was studded with nails on the inside and the athletes were put in it if they lost?
You are right. Atheletes were tortured.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uday_Hussein
Torture of Iraqi athletes
Squad of Al-Rasheed (Al-Karkh now) in the 1984–85 season. Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein are in the top row, middle.
In 1984, after Uday graduated from university, Saddam appointed him chairman of the Iraqi Olympic Committee and the Iraq Football Association. In the former role, he tortured athletes who failed to win.[11][12][13] According to Latif Yahia, Uday’s alleged body double, “The word that defines him is sadistic. I think Saddam Hussein was more human than Uday. The Olympic Committee was not a sports center, it was Uday’s world”.[14]
Raed Ahmed, an Iraqi athlete who defected to the United States, said: “During training, he would watch all the athletes closely, and put pressure on the coaches to push the athletes even more. If he was not happy with the results, he would have coaches and athletes put in his private prison in the Olympic Committee building. The punishment was Uday’s private prison where they tortured people. Some athletes, including the best ones, started quitting the sport once Uday took over the Committee ... I always managed not to be punished. I made sure not to promise anything. There is a strong possibility of always being beaten. But when I won, Uday would be very happy.”[15] In 2005, a video of Uday questioning Raed’s family was released. They were then reportedly transported by car to a prison, where they remained for 16 days in poor conditions.[16][17]
Ammo Baba, whose football teams won 18 tournaments and participated in three Olympics, said that Uday’s punishment destroyed players’ athletic abilities. Baba said that half of the Iraqi athletes had left the country, and many had feigned illness before playing against strong competitors; he reportedly told his friends that if he died suddenly, they would know the reason. Maad Ibrahim Hamid, assistant coach of the national football team, said that Uday rewarded players financially for winning and threatened them with imprisonment if they lost. According to Hamid, athletes were not tortured; they were arrested for immoral behaviour, (including adultery and addiction to alcohol) and for playing poorly.[18] Ahmed Radhi said that after he was unwilling to join the new Al-Rasheed club, he was kidnapped at midnight by Uday’s men, beaten and accused of harassment; he accepted Uday’s offer when he was threatened with death.[19] International footballer Saad Qais said that Uday was angry with him because he was sent off during a 1997 match against Turkmenistan. His “discipline” was administered by jailers (known as “teachers”) in a closed section of a detention facility for athletes and journalists in Radwaniyah Palace.[20] According to Qais, “Uday established the Rashid team and forced the best Iraqi players to play in it, and forced me to leave my beloved team, and he honored us with gifts after every win, but he also punished us after every loss.”[21]