Sunday, August 10, 2008

To Swim Or Not To Swim...

Iran Does Backstroke on Competing with Israeli in Games


by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

"Several hours after the Iranian National Olympic Committee said its swimmer would compete with an Israeli at the Beijing Sumer Games, the swimmer pulled out of the contest. The Iranian council had said that the competition would not present a problem because the swimmers were separated by five lanes and would not face each other.

"However, Iranian swimmer Mohammed Alirezaei left his lane empty instead of swimming against Israel's Tom Be'eri, who finished fourth. He set a new Israeli record with a 1.02:42 time in the 100-meter breaststroke category.

"'Alirezaei swims in lane one and the representative of the Zionist regime in lane seven, so they will not face each other,' Iranian Olympic Committee secretary Ali Kafashian told an Iranian news agency prior to the race."


At my first glance at this story, I had the obligatory "stupid people, why can't they ever learn?" reaction. Then I realized, hey, it's one least person that the "representative of the Zionist regime" has to beat. I don't mind, it's his loss. Isn't the whole point of the Olympics to "go for the gold?" Looks like he just went for disgrace. I really don't mind. You know what? Even better, let them leave the Olympics altogether -- it would make the Olympics a better place for everybody.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home