The hatred of Israel in the Islamic Republic of Iran prevails.

Amir Mohammad Jasdani, who traveled to Belgrade as a favorite in the weight class up to 70 kilograms for the World Freestyle Wrestling Championships, was not allowed to compete against Israeli wrestler Josh Finesilver in the Serbian capital on Thursday.

Officially because he weighed 300 grams too much, unofficially because of the Iranian doctrine of forbidding its own athletes to compete against Israeli athletes in order to negate Israel's right to exist.

Christopher Becker

sports editor.

  • Follow I follow

The International Wrestling Federation UWW, led by Serb Nenad Lalović, is one of many international sports federations that grant the Iranian federation, although the doctrine has prevented practice and fighting between Iranian and Israeli athletes for four decades.

Mollaei left his native land

The notable exception is the International Judo Federation (IJF), which banned Iranians for four years for refusing to compete against Israeli athletes.

The suspension had been confirmed by the International Court of Arbitration for Sports CAS in an arbitral award on September 1st.

The background to the exclusion is the pressure that Iranian officials and security agencies put on judoka Saeid Mollaei when he wanted to compete against Israeli Sagi Muki at the World Championships in Tokyo in August 2019.

Mollaei then left his homeland and is now fighting for Azerbaijan.

The President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, subsequently referred to a letter from Iran's National Olympic Committee and the then Minister of Sports of Iran when asked why the IOC was not excluding Iran to follow the charter extensively.

At the same time, the main authority in Tehran, the supreme spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has never left any doubt that Iranian sport has to follow the anti-Israel doctrine.

In 2017, Alireza Karimi awarded the young wrestler and promised him "divine reward" when he had to give up a fight against an Israeli opponent at a junior world championship.

The 21-year-old Jasdani, the youngest world-class wrestler from one of the most well-known wrestling families in Iran, finished second in the weight class up to 67 kilograms at the World Championships in Oslo last year.

On Monday he left for Belgrade with the Iranian World Cup team. On Wednesday, after the draw for the fight against Finesilver, the Iranian media suddenly reported "knee problems".

On Thursday, being overweight made the competition impossible.

The world association had presented Jasdani on the UWW YouTube channel in the summer as wrestling's "next big superstar".

It can be assumed that, like other prevented wrestlers before him, he will now be honored by those in power in Tehran for an attitude that is forced upon him.

In the UWW video interview, he said that he found the American way of wrestling exemplary and that he would "like to wrestle more like her".

Josh Finesilver, who he now missed out on in Belgrade, was born in Colorado and wrestles for Duke University in the United States.

In another UWW video from this spring, Jasdani replied to the question of where he was afraid: "In front of narrow, dark rooms.

Of getting stuck in the elevator.” The best advice he has ever received is to “go your own way” and “think for yourself”.