thabet
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04:23:41 am on August 14, 2008 | # | |
Via Sunny, comes a New York Times report of incidents at the Olympics involving the Spanish and Iranian athletes. Sunny calls these incidents ‘racism’.
I’d like to concentrate on the incident involving an Iranian:
[An] Iranian swimmer [...] called in sick to his swimming heat, almost certainly to avoid getting into the pool with an Israeli.
Unsporting? Yes. Pathetic? I’d agree. ‘Racism’? I am not so sure.
If it isn’t racism that made England cricket team pull out of touring Zimbabwe, then why must it be racism if an Iranian pulls out of a swimming race with an Israeli?
Clearly, this is sport and politics mixing together like they have always done.
The Iranian National Olympic Committee apparently sees no problem with one if its swimmers taking on an Israel, according to this CNN report (which also explains Iran did the same in the 2004 games).
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Sy 4:50 am on August 14, 2008 | #
In Athens 2004, the world champion Judo fighter failed to make weight allegedly b/c he was going to fight an Israeli; people were calling for him to be kicked out of any future int’l competition/Iranian delegation to be removed/that kind of politics has/had no place in Olympics (blatantly false assertion, as you point out, if Olympic history is any guide). I am certain both Iranian athletes would have behaved the same if the Israelis were of Iranian Jew extraction.
razib 9:32 am on August 14, 2008 | #
it’s only racism if the people are white christians.
thabet 1:29 pm on August 14, 2008 | #
The England cricket team pulling out of a tour in Zimbabwe?