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.

  • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    65
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Didn’t a Ukrainian women get disqualified from Fencing recently for understandably not shaking hands with a Russian opponent? What are the rules, would this bloke have been disqualifed if he hadn’t shook the others hand?

        • PapstJL4U@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          and holding of the sword for tapping was one of the pictures circulated, that made the ukraine fencer look aggressive.

    • ZeroEcks@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      Fencing is kind of different, as far as I know you shake hands (or tap swords) before fencing to indicate that you aren’t actually going to try and murder each other. Weightlifting isn’t the same in that regard. Though I’m just speculating on the specific rules around this

      • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        With the protective gear they’re wearing, I’m pretty sure that you couldn’t murder your opponent even if you wanted to.

        The injury rate in fencing is just marginally higher than the injury rate in synchronized swimming or table tennis.