TEHRAN, Iran — The head of Iran’s wrestling federation resigns on Wednesday after criticizing authorities for letting athletes pay the price for the ban on facing Israeli opponents.
Wrestling is a hugely popular sport in Iran where Rasoul Khadem, an Olympic gold medalist, was re-elected as president of the Wrestling Federation just two months ago.
But in a somewhat cryptic letter published on the federation’s website he suggests he had been forced from his post, saying “apparently it is not going to work out” because of “my awkward mentality.”
“I cannot lie. Sometimes the best way to take a stand is not to stand,” he writes.
The councils for freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling announces they were resigning en masse along with Khadem, the semi-official ISNA news agency reports.
Khadem had recently criticized Iranian authorities for their approach to competing against Israeli opponents.
He had previously told ISNA that, if the country’s policy was to avoid Israeli rivals then it should “behave honestly and… accept the consequences.”
— AFP
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