# Olympics Iran vs. Israel? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [July 31, 2012, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-iran-vs-israel/630005 "2012-07-31T23:15:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-iran-vs-israel/630005/1 "2012-07-31T23:15:03Z")
Is there any event where an Israeli team is going up against a team from Iran? What about other countries that don’t exactly like each other? What about in past Olympics? The US and USSR used to put on some lively games. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-iran-vs-israel/630005/2 "2012-07-31T23:18:45Z")
Eeh. Israel is misspelled. But…Iran said they would compete against Israel…[but that didn’t happen a few days ago](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iran-and-israel-not-expected-to-face-off-in-london-olympics/2012/07/24/gJQAQ2Ks5W_story.html?socialreader_check=0&denied=1). > [@](#): > > On Sunday, Iranian authorities announced that that athlete, Javad Mahjoub, a judo champion, was suffering from a “critical digestive system infection,” forcing him to take antibiotics and cancel plans for the Games, which begin Friday. > > Mahjoub’s absence has led to speculation that Iran is maintaining its long-standing policy of not allowing its athletes to compete with Israeli opponents. > > Mahjoub himself has acknowledged going to great lengths to keep from squaring off against an Israeli. In a 2011 interview with the Iranian newspaper Shargh, Mahjoub admitted to throwing a match against a German opponent, saying: “If I won, I would have had to compete with an Israeli athlete. And if I refused to compete with the Israeli, they would have suspended our judo federation for four years.” and… > [@](#): > > Days after the IOC announcement, Iranian Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Mohammad Abbasi told the Islamic Republic News Agency that “not competing with Zionist athletes is one of the values and sources of pride of the Iranian people and its athletes.” $10 says they won’t be punished, even though they’re violating IOC rules. They do it all the time. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-iran-vs-israel/630005/3 "2012-07-31T23:54:09Z")
Israel hasn’t qualified in any [team sports](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_at_the_2012_Summer_Olympics) (and neither has [Iran](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_at_the_2012_Summer_Olympics)). ---
**Author:** ![Randy\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee7513/32.png) [@Randy\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randy_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2012, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-iran-vs-israel/630005/4 "2012-08-01T00:17:17Z")
> [@Farmer\_Jane](#): > > Eeh. Israel is misspelled. > > But…Iran said they would compete against Israel…[but that didn’t happen a few days ago](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iran-and-israel-not-expected-to-face-off-in-london-olympics/2012/07/24/gJQAQ2Ks5W_story.html?socialreader_check=0&denied=1). > > and… > > $10 says they won’t be punished, even though they’re violating IOC rules. They do it all the time. The two athletes seem to be in different weight classes – Ariel Ze’evi is in the 100kg whereas Mohammad Reza Roudaki would have been in the 100+kg class. So they wouldn’t have competed against each other anyway. Unless Judo is weird: I don’t know anything about it. I don’t think any other Israeli/Iranian pairs are competing in anything close to the same event. The next closest (after the Judo) are two men doing different shooting events – the Israeli is doing rifle and the Iranian is doing pistol. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-iran-vs-israel/630005/5 "2012-08-01T00:19:09Z")
I fixed the spelling in the OP. And yes, there is something of a history of countries that don’t like Israel refusing to compete against it, _perhaps_ because they don’t want to have to explain a loss. ---
**Author:** ![newcomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e5b9ba/32.png) [@newcomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcomer)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2012, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-iran-vs-israel/630005/6 "2012-08-01T00:33:49Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > Israel hasn’t qualified in any [team sports](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_at_the_2012_Summer_Olympics) (and neither has [Iran](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_at_the_2012_Summer_Olympics)). 😃 However, it’s quite amazing to see how two insignificant countries get all the undeserved attention at the world stage even though they both have surgically removed sport gene. It just boggles the mind that there’s more than 200 articles on Google News addressing this factually impossible showdown. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-iran-vs-israel/630005/7 "2012-08-01T00:55:00Z")
I think seeing N. Korea play S. Korea in something would be hugely interesting. Anyone know of this may happen? ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2012, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-iran-vs-israel/630005/8 "2012-08-01T02:31:50Z")
Hungary played USSR in water polo in '56, there was nearly a riot. Hungarian swimmers came out bloodied. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2012, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-iran-vs-israel/630005/9 "2012-08-01T15:40:15Z")
In 2004, Iranian lightweight judo star Arash Miresmaeili was considered to be the favorite for the gold medal in his weight class. His first-round opponent was scheduled to be an Israeli athlete named Ehud Vaks. Miresmaeili went on an eating binge just before the Games and was disqualified before the first match for being 4 lbs. over the weight limit. Supposedly he was given $125K and a trip to Mecca by the government when he returned home. This was not just some random match–this was giving up a probable gold medal to make a political point. Astonishing. As an aside, Israel competes with European teams in World Cup soccer qualifying, not Asia, as geography would seem to dictate. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2012, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-iran-vs-israel/630005/10 "2012-08-01T16:33:25Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I think seeing N. Korea play S. Korea in something would be hugely interesting. Anyone know of this may happen? North Korea and South Korea are [drawn against each other](http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/25/london-2012-olympics-table-tennis) in the first round of the men’s team table tennis, which starts on Friday. They have already faced each other in the singles, and the [North won](http://view.koreaherald.com/kh/view.php?ud=20120730001323&cpv=0). The media were trying to hype up the needle between GB and Argentina in the [hockey](http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/team-gb-argentina-hockey-opener-193024211.html), but that’s the media for you. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2012, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympics-iran-vs-israel/630005/11 "2012-08-01T23:49:03Z")
How about Macedonia vs Greece? Macedonia’s offical name is “The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”. Quite the mouthful, and an armload for the poor girl who had to carry that name in the opening ceremony. I understand they are named that way so as not to offend Greece, who has a province by the name Macedonia. I take it there is no love lost between these neighbors as well.