Sport

Iranwire – As the October 12 match between Iran and South Korea fast approaches, international football federation head Gianni Infantino has expressed hope that Iranian and global officials can reach an agreement on two key issues: the widespread debate over video referee assistance (VAR) and the decades-long argument about women being allowed into stadiums, an ongoing preoccupation of particular significance for …

Al-Monitor – An Iranian archer won her third gold medal in a row at the Paralympics this week, while another Iranian athlete set a world record in javelin. Zahra Nemati won gold Thursday in the women’s individual recurve competition, which refers to a type of bow used to shoot a target. Nemati remarkably also won the gold at the 2012 …

jpost – Seyed Hamid Sajjadi Hazaveh, the newly appointed Iranian minister of sports, joined members of the Islamic Republic’s parliament in August in urging Iranian athletes from competing against their Israeli counterparts.Hamid Sajjadi termed Israel a “child killing and occupying regime,” sparking criticism from a highly decorated Iranian Greco-Roman wrestler.The former head of Iran’s Greco-Roman wrestling team, Sardar Pashaei, who is now …

Al-Monitor – Iran is winning medals at the Paralympics. Amir Khosravani won gold on Monday in the men’s long jump at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Khosravani jumped 7.21 meters (23.66 feet) in the event, which consists of athletes running and then jumping forward into a sandpit, according to the semi-official Tasnim News Agency. The Paralympics occur alongside the Olympic Games and are for …

Iranwire – Iran brought home its first gold medal for wrestling in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday courtesy of 25-year-old Mohammad Reza Geraei. The Greco-Roman wrestler, a former youth world champion and gold medalist at the Asian Championships, won his last fight in the 67kg class 9-1 over Parviz Nesibov of Ukraine. The fifth and last representative of Iranian wrestling in this …

Iranwire – On Friday, July 30, Persepolis football team defeated Paykan to win the Iran Pro League for the fifth time in a row. This time, though, victory celebrations in cities across the country rapidly turned into anti-government protests. Chants including “Death to the dictator”, “Mullahs get lost” and “Death to Velayat-e faqih” –  “guardianship of the Islamic jurist”, the foundational principle of the …

Iranwire – Iranian sprinter Farzaneh Fasihi arrived at the Tokyo Olympics without any official support from the Islamic Republic. The Ministry of Sports, the Iranian sporting federation and Iran’s National Olympic Committee all turned their backs on her. And yet she made history: she became the first Iranian woman runner to compete in the Olympics for 57 years. She wore the hijab as Iranian law …

RFL/RE – It was a bittersweet moment for many Iranians. Kimia Alizadeh, an Iranian taekwondo fighter, beat her opponent, also from Iran, at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.Alizadeh, who emigrated to Europe in 2020 after criticizing the oppression of women in the Islamic republic, represented the Refugee Team while her opponent and former teammate, Nahid Kiayani, was fighting for their …

RFL/RE – Saeid Mollaei, an Iranian defector representing Mongolia at the Tokyo Olympics, has won a silver medal in judo for his adopted country. Mollaei, 29, lost to Japan’s Takanori Nagase in the men’s 81-kg judo final on July 27. Mollaei, who won the 2018 world championship title, left Iran two years ago after being ordered to deliberately lose at …

Iranwire – Kimia Alizadeh, Iran’s 23-year-old “daughter-in-exile”, has achieved fourth place in the Tokyo Olympics in taekwondo as a refugee. Five years ago in Rio, Alizadeh became the first Iranian woman to win a medal in the Olympic games. This time, not only was she not fighting under the Iranian flag, but she competed against – and defeated – her friend and her former …