In True Olympic Spirit: Iran swimmer avoids Israeli pool showdown in Beijing

Iran swimmer avoids Israeli pool showdown in Beijing

An Iranian swimmer pulled out of the Olympic Games men's 100m breaststroke heats on Saturday, just minutes before he was due to compete against an Israeli rival.

Mohammad Alirezaei's lane one was empty when the field left the starting blocks while Israel's Tom Beeri, starting in lane seven, finished fourth.

Israel, the Middle East region's sole if undeclared nuclear power, considers Iran its main strategic threat because of its nuclear programme and repeated predictions of the Jewish state's demise by senior Iranian leaders.

During the 2004 Athens Olympics, Iran's judo world champion Arash Miresmaeili, one of the country's prominent gold medal hopes, refused to compete against Ehud Vaks of Israel in the first round out of solidarity for the Palestinian cause.

Miresmaeili, twice a winner of the flyweight world title, still received a 5,000-dollar award the Iranian National Olympic Committee had promised to medal winners and he was hailed by former President Mohammad Khatami for his stance.

Beeri made no mention of Saturday's non-appearance of Alirezaei post-race.

"It was okay for me, I have to be happy with that. It was a PB (personal best) for me and a national record, I am focusing on the 200 metres," he said.

"I wasn't nervous, I just came here ready and I wasn't nervous at all."

There had been reports that Iran would compete against Israel at these Olympic Games for the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The Iranian National Olympic Committee (INOC) had said that as there was "no face-to-face situation" in swimming there would be no problem in attending the competition.

"Alirezaei swims in lane one and the representative of the Zionist regime (Israel) in lane seven, so they will not face each other," INOC secretary Ali Kafashian told ISNA news agency prior to the race.

According to ISNA, also the country's sports organisation, which is part of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government, had confirmed that there would no be boycott in the race. source

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People should be fined and banned for this kind of shit. Leave the petty hatred at home, and if you can't, then don't bother entering in the first place. it's a sporting event, Not a political rostrum.

 

I like this quote... the running dog Zionist imperialist pigs are in lane seven... so no politicisation of sport there then!

 

What a punk. If you want to bing politics into the Olympics, then be a man and compete and kick his ass. Pulling out is not a protest, it's an admission of defeat.

You train all your life, you know the competition, and travel half way across the world, to act like a little kid who had his candy taken away.

What a waste !

 

Jessie Owens is the model of how to behave when you are competing against people whose ideas you don't agree with.


Naoto Tajima (left) with Jesse Owens (middle) and Luz Long (right)

 

Piss poor, what better way than to defeat a rival in a world sporting event such as this.

 

Iran is showing their ugly face to the whole world, a dumb move made by the dumbest Iranian monkeys (leaders).

Russia is playing basketball against Iran tomorrow and the russian coach is an Israeli.
I bet the Iranian coach wont shake hands.

Stupid Politics.

 

Yet when you post stuff like this it makes me feel the same about Israel, I swear those in Israel are in fact their own worst enemies as you truly make yourselves look bad.

 

Here is a little tidbit from Wiki:

Owens surprised many by winning four gold medals: On August 3, 1936 he won the 100m sprint, defeating Ralph Metcalfe; on August 4, the long jump (later crediting friendly and helpful advice from German competitor Luz Long)

There is no reason to call other people monkeys. That just reflects on you. And gives people good reason to ignore everything you say.

This reflects on him alone. You should not take his words and use them as a rationale to judge a nation.

 

I said nothing but truth...

In fact youre right and Im very sorry for insulting the monkeys. Monkeys are much better than those iranian leaders.

 

I agree and I don't take it to judge a country as whole, I guess my point is I would hope sooner or later he and a few others from Israel would realize making statements such as they do makes them look more like hate filled bigots than people who are being attacked.

 

Peaceful protest. Good for him!

 

It wasnt his protest, it was his leader.

Too bad his leader does not give a dime about the Iranian swimmer.
Years of training and hard work gone to nowhere, dream smashed into pieces by mr ahmanijad himself.

The poor swimmer had no choice

Bad for him

 

I have no problem with his action. I think it reflects badly on him and Iran, but that is just my opinion.

I certainly would rather see this type of protest over what the Palestinians did in 1972.

 

http://www.mehrnews.ir/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=729926

When Iranian Committee says it's ok for him to race, and that the Iranian news say it was due to illness, it is rushed to say, even though not too unlikely, it was due to Israeli participation to the race.

 

1972 is a bit too far into the past. This athlete is doing it for more recent events. When Israel wants to bomb his country, call them evil and calls them terrorists, of course he should protest that. There is no other country in the world currently that tops the list of human rights abuses than Israel and the United States. Here in the US hopefully with the new administration we'll try to restore things. What about you in Israel? When will you stop the human rights violations?

 

I think that was the only part of your post that has any sense. As an American I certainly look forward to getting Bush out of office and restoring America's place in the world.

The rest was your usual gibberish.

 

That is a factually incorrect statement. Iran is doing quite a bad job of human rights.

Here's a list of countries with humans rights abuses. Still not seeing the U.S. in the lead position.

If you spouted your frankly negative political opinion in many countries, you would suffer negative consequences. But you live in the USA, and have no problem saying whatever you want. You're so used to enjoying an extremely high level of human rights, you don't even have any gratitude for it.

 

History Lesson :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American-led_boycott_of_the_1980_Summer_Olympics

 

Looks like the Iranian basketball team has a little more class that the swimmer:

A day after an Iranian swimmer refused to race alongside an Israeli, David Blatt and the captain of the Iran basketball team Mohammadsamad Nikkhah displayed the true spirit of the Olympic Games when they spoke and embraced moments after the Israeli's Russia team defeated Iran 71-49 in Group A.

"This is the beauty of sport," Blatt said after the game. "As soon as you start running you forget everything and remember that we are all the same. Unfortunately, politics is not in the hands of the regular people and the athletes.

"They are great guys and have some good players who could even play in the Euroleague," added Blatt about the Iranians.

The Iranian players answered the questions asked by Israeli journalist about the game, but wouldn't say much when asked about playing against an Israeli coach. source​