Iran has banned a weightlifter from sports for life and dissolved a sports committee after the athlete greeted an Israeli counterpart on a podium.

Mostafa Rajaei, a veteran weightlifter, finished second in his category in the 2023 World Master Weightlifting Championships in Poland and stood on a podium with an Iranian flag wrapped around him on Saturday.

On anther step of the podium stood Maksim Svirsky from Israel, who finished third.

The two athletes shook hands and took a picture together, which led to the Iran Weightlifting Federation banning Rajaei from all sports for life due to what it called an “unforgivable” transgression.

  • Fuckass [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Even if you want to tell yourself the regime has absolute control over information

    Even if they did have complete control, I’m pretty sure Iranians want to spread anti Israel sentiment whenever possible, so this ban wouldn’t necessarily be controversial for the government. It would probably be all over the place to encourage more people to do the opposite of the athlete