Alireza Karimi-Machiani talks to his coach Rasoul Khadem at the Freestyle World Cup (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)At the 2017 U23 World Senior Wrestling Championship in Poland Saturday, the U.S. and the Israeli coaches were not the only ones watching an early round match between their 86-kilogram wrestlers closely. The Iranian coach was also watching and when the Israeli wrestler pinned his American opponent he set in motion one of the most shameful and most open secrets in sports today. Iran throws matches, forfeits and will not wrestle Israelis.
At the same time the U.S.-Israeli match was happening, so was the match between Iran's 86-kilogram wrestler and Russia's. When the Israeli won his match, the Iranian, who had been winning, suddenly stopped wrestling and lost. Iranian news outlets reported that the Iranian wrestler said his coach told him to throw the match so he would not face the Israeli in the next round.
This is not the first time this has happened. This is not even the first time it's happened to this Iranian wrestler. I wrote about Alireza Karimi-Machiani in 2013 when he was forced by Iran's politics to forfeit to an Israeli opponent in the Junior World Championships. At the time I wrote, "The referee raised (Israeli) Ophir Bernstein's hand as the winner of a match that never happened. He (Bernstein) would compete for gold, thanks to the intolerance and interference that took the Iranian wrestler's place. When sports and politics mix no one wins." This is as true today as it was then.
Officially, Karimi-Machiani was injured and could not compete. Unofficially everyone in the arena in Sofia, Bulgaria, knew he wasn't injured. Instead he was following his country's hard-line ideology. Iran doesn't recognize the state of Israel and its athletes do not compete against Israelis in wrestling or any other sport.
In 2013 Karimi-Machiani did not speak out, but as the mother of a wrestler in that competition I knew that he had worked hard and beat the best of the rest in his country just to be there, imagine how disappointing for him. According to the New York Times, this time after the "loss" to the Russian, Karimi-Machiani did speak out, telling the Iranian Students News Agency, "I do accept that Israel is an oppressor and commits crimes, but would it not be oppression if our authorities undermine my hard work again?"
Karimi-Machiani knows it and so do his teammates, oppression has no place in sports. United World Wrestling needs to draw a line here. Now that Iran's meddling in competition, tampering with results and faking injury is not just an open secret, but a confirmed fact there must be consequences. Iran's teams should not be allowed to compete unless they agree to face all opponents, including Israelis. It is unfair to everyone competing, especially the Iranian athletes, to do otherwise.
Friday, the Titan Mercury Wrestling Club is heading to Iran to compete in the World Clubs Cup Dec. 7-8. I realize it's unrealistic to expect that the team would stay home in protest. I realize that our athletes have trained and worked hard to be ready for this event. I wouldn't ask our athletes to make a stand alone.
Of course, the federations for other sports could and should have consequences for Iran. But this is a clear violation of what international sporting events stand for -- competition for all -- and it happened at a UWW event. That's why the UWW should take the lead here.
Its message to Iran needs to be loud and clear: Put politics aside when you come to compete or stay home.
Editor's note: Caryn Ward's son is Sam Brooks who lost to Israel's Ophir Bernstein at the Junior World Championship in 2013 and also lost to Israel's Uri Kalashnikov at Saturday's 2017 U23 World Senior Wrestling Championships.
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