Israel Matzav

Iranian weight lifter banned for life for appearing with Israeli

On Thursday, I showed you video of the award ceremony for the 105 kilo category at the World Weightlifting Championships in Poland. The Israeli competitor came in first, an Iranian came in second and a German came in third.

The Iranian refused to shake the Israeli's hand, although he did stand at the podium while the Israeli national anthem - HaTikva - was played. I remarked that based on past precedent I was surprised that the Iranian didn't just forfeit the match with the Israeli.

Apparently, the Iranian government was also surprised. It has banned the weightlifter and his coach from all sporting activities for life.

Jalal Yahya-Zadeh, head of Physical Education Committee for Youth Committee announced this news and and added: "The fact that an Iranian weightlifting veteran has competed against an Israeli during the worldwide competitions and has stood beside him during the distribution of medal is unjustifiable."

He added: "Unfortunately, those who supposedly had the primary responsibility in this regard did not see any problem in this matter, however did not see it fit to be distributed within the public, which itself is an obvious mistake on their end."

If the sporting community had any morals, it would pit Israeli competitors against Arabs and Muslims in every event until the Arabs and Muslims tired of forfeiting and either withdrew from competition altogether or decided to compete. But expecting that kind of courage of conviction from a community that insisted that 'the games must go on' at Munich nearly 40 years ago is probably asking too much.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Iranian weightlifter, Poland, unsportsmanlike conduct

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:27 PM