by an athlete to compete for political reasons will be punished.
In both of the last two Olympics—in 2004 and 2008—Iranian athletes withdrew from the games when they drew Israelis as opponents.
Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), issued the punishment threat. But he didn’t say what the punishment would be. He said only, “Sanctions will be taken,” a perhaps less-than-ideal choice of words as it will imply to many Iranians that any punishment is just part and parcel of various Western pressures on Iran for its nuclear program.
Long-standing Olympic rules allow the IOC to expel a country’s entire team from the games. But Rogge, a Belgian national, did not mention that.
For decades, Iran has forbidden Iranian athletes to compete directly against Israelis. An Iranian may enter an event in which an Israeli is also entered, but if the Iranian draws that Israeli as an opponent, then the Iranian must withdraw.
This is obvious in an event such as wrestling, where an Iranian cannot touch an Israeli in a face-to-face match but where Israelis and Iranians often appear in the same weight division without drawing each other as opponents. But the regime has also interpreted the rule to mean an Iranian swimmer had to withdraw from a meet when he and an Israeli swimmer were both assigned to same heat in the same pool with a half-dozen others.
Rogge spoke out Friday after an Algerian kayaker withdrew from a race against an Israeli in the recent World Cup of canoeing held in Germany to select athletes for the Olympics. The Algerian returned the next day to compete in another event that had no Israelis entered. The head of the Algerian Olympic Committee, Rachid Hanifi, said it would be up to the Algerian government to decide whether Algerian athletes could face Israelis in the Olympic Games. He seemed unaware that such a political decision violated Olympic rules.
Rogge said that all 200-plus nations coming to the London Olympics next month had been warned that only serious injury would be an acceptable excuse for not competing.
Rogge told The Guardian of Britain, “If Nation A does not appear at the competition against Nation B, we will ask for explanations. If the explanation is not satisfactory and valid at the end of it and is not credible, then we will go into cross-examination by an independent medical board. And, if the medical board says it is not a genuine reason, then sanctions will be taken. That is quite clear.”
But it isn’t quite clear. The Islamic Republic has flaunted the Olympic rules for decades and never been punished. Many sports federations are reluctant to impose punishment by expelling a team for obvious reasons: they do not want to punish individual athletes for a rule violation that is actually committed by the Iranian government, not by the athletes themselves.
Furthermore, the Islamic Republic’s rule is seen as self-defeating. When an Iranian wrestler has refused to enter the mat against an Israeli, the Israeli is declared the winner by default and advances to the next round. Israeli athletes are not hurt by the Iranian rule; they are helped. While the Israeli government always protests Iranian withdrawals as a violation of good sportsmanship and Olympic rules, Israeli athletes often just laugh at the self-defeating policy of the Islamic Republic.
At one point decades ago, Iran boasted of its ban against facing Israeli athletes. But that obvious politicization of an athletic competition offended many in the sports world and there was a move to discipline the Islamic Republic. The Iranian government then changef tactics and had the athletes who drew Israeli opponents call in sick. Internationally, Iran no longer claims to have a rule against facing Israelis—though the rule is openly acknowledged in the domestic media.
For the 2010 Olympic winter games in Vancouver, Iran’s sports federation appears to have convinced the government to quietly drop the ban. Iranian athletes did face Israelis. In a downhill race, for example, the Iranian skier was followed down the slope immediately by an Israeli.
An alert sports reporter, however, saw what was happening and did a story about the Iranian volte face. That publicity seems to have embarrassed the regime because the old rule was re-imposed and only weeks after the Winter Olympics an Iranian swimmer pulled out of race in Europe when he was assigned to the same heat as an Israeli.
Meanwhile, a team of Iranian archers has headed to the United States for the Olympic qualification competition. The Mehr news agency reported that officials of the Iranian Archery Federation “have prohibited all members of the national archery team from giving any interviews to the media.” It said the federation told the archers they would be booted off the team if they did so.
It wasn’t explained what the federation feared about interviews given in the US.