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Iran bans weightlifter for life after he shakes Israeli’s hand on podium (www.aljazeera.com)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml
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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.

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[–] 74 points 3 years ago (13 children)

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?

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  • [–] 35 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Fencing has a customary handshake.

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  • [–] 15 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    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

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years 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.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (7 children)

    Did she think some random fencer was responsible for a war? Nationalists are so fucking insufferable

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  • [–] 9 points 3 years ago (6 children)

    No, but there were plenty of of social media posts said fencer had made supporting the war and her brother fighting in it. So I guess nationalism sucks on both sides huh?

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (5 children)

    Only one side threw a tantrum over matters of basic courtesy in the competition over nationalism.

    In other words, "whataboutism"

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    So Hexbear no subscribe to "both sideism" now do they? Not shaking hands at a sports competition is clearly an equal offense to invading a neighbouring nation an killing their civilians isn't it?

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    When did this russian fencer invade any countries or kill anyone

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    She's shown support for her country doing so to the other contestants nation.

    Let's try an analogy, if a hate group burn down your house, then a month later you end up in say, a darts tournament, against a member of said hate group. Not the one that burned your house down, but someone who made it clear they were happy that the event happened, do you think it's fair you should be expected to act civilly to said person?

    Let's take the "Nazi bar" analogy people love to quote, do you think in that scenario the bartender was in the wrong to kick out the Nazi, since he's never kicked a BAME persons head in, he just likes the people who do an their iconography?

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago*

    If you can't behave civilly with another person you have no business swinging a sword at them. You should protest the event hosting them if you feel so strongly about it. You certainly shouldn't be participating in the event. If you decide to show up and compete against the other person you're already past all that, and now you need to behave civilly with them.

    The point is, sure, there are people who don't deserve respect. But respect is a necessary prerequisite for this kind of competition. If you can't respect your opponent you shouldn't be competing against them. You can't disrespect them and also compete against them, you pick one or the other.

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