In the "true spirit" of the Olympics Arash Miresmaili, a judo champion of the flyweight division, dropped out of the competition when he learned he would face an Israeli;
"Although I have trained for months and was in good shape I refused to fight my Israeli opponent to sympathize with the suffering of the people of Palestine and I do not feel upset at all," Miresmaili told the IRNA news agency.
Now pardon me for being somewhat childish but I am thinking:
bwak, bwak, bwak! CHICKEN!
What I'm thinking is he is just afraid he'll be shown up by an Israeli. He's afraid of losing. I'll say it again;
bwak, bwak, bwak! CHICKEN!
This has happened before to Israeli players and in at least one case the chicken was banned for a year.
A year? That's not punishment. How about ten yeas. Now that would make a difference.
But then, the Olympics doesn't stir a whole lot of good thoughts in my mind in any case. 1936 and 1972 stick out in my mind.
I'm not watching the games; no satellite connection, as well as having other things to do. I would be interested in knowing if there was a memorial for the 11 members of the Israeli team murdered in 1972. I am hoping something was said, done.
Posted by Rachel Ann at August 14, 2004 10:53 PMThis is so funny....thanks for the laugh.
Let's look at this logically...if I were an athlete (ok you can stop laughing!)on a team that opposed Israel I would make sure I was in that match so that I could win and say, "I kicked your ass!" but instead they are justifying this by saying they don't want to do this because they want to show sympathy for the Palestinians? Uhm....does this make any sense to anyone with a brain? Ya, I didn't think so!!
I assume you know that there will be no ban for this guy, right?
Posted by: RP at August 17, 2004 02:22 AMArash miresmaili is a judo genious.He would easily win the game if he wanted.But,what is important is that iranian don't accept Israel as a country to play with their athlete(and how funny athletes!).If they play against an Israeli it,before any other thing,means they have accepted them as a country.This is the reason why such a great athlete as Arash Miresmaili didn't accept to play with that Israeli guy.
He is not only a great athlete and Judo Genious but also a great man.
If he were a great man and a great athelete he would have fought. Israel exists; the Iranian team should have been disqualified.