An Iranian Wrestler Throws His Match to Avoid an Israeli<br />Iranian Students News Agency said that I was told that the Israeli wrestler defeated his American rival,<br />and that I must lose to avoid facing an Israeli opponent,<br />The day after the match, he posted a video on Instagram of him walking along rainy streets in Poland, listening to a depressing song<br />that starts with the sentence, "Silence is the last stronghold; you cannot take away our right." "I don’t know what to say to calm you," an Instagram user, Saeed Parvazi, wrote in the comments.<br />Israel said that I have trained hard for months to win a gold medal, and it was easy for me to win.<br />As Iranian news outlets reported on Tuesday, he said his real problem was<br />that his coach had told him to throw the match to avoid facing an Israeli opponent in the next round of the tournament.<br />"Politics is separated from sports, damn those who break the hearts of our athletes<br />and people with such policies." The video stirred up a storm, so on Monday Iran’s Wrestling Federation published a statement praising Mr. Karimi-Machiani’s decision to lose.
