ATHENS (Reuters) - Iran’s world judo champion Arash Miresmaeili refused to compete against an Israeli Sunday, triggering a fresh crisis at the Olympic Games where race, creed or color are not allowed to interfere with sport.
“This is a general policy of our country to refrain from competing against athletes of the Zionist regime and Arash Miresmaeili has observed this policy,” [the Iranian National Olympic Committee in Tehran ] said.
I wonder how the IOC will deal with this, given the anti-Semitism predominant in Europe.