The inaugural Youth Olympics are currently taking place in Singapore. While many people are not keeping score, these are the athletes of the future. They represent a more innocent look at sports. High paying endorsement deals are not on the line; the athletes will not be sitting out because of contract disputes and the emphasis will be on sportsmanship and competition. Unfortunately, Iran wishes to forgo the idea of sportsmanship.
In the tae kwon do finals, the young man representing Iran was forced by his country to withdraw because he was facing off against an Israeli for the gold. Iran's actions not only hindered their young man from winning a gold, which is a huge ambition killer, if ever there was one, but also taught him the opposite of sportsmanship. The Olympics should not be political and despite all the bad political actions in previous Olympics those were adults acting like children. In the children’s' Olympics, sport should take precedent, not racism.
If any country should boycott international sports it should be Israel. Let us not forget that in the Munich Olympics of 1972, the Israeli Olympic team was slaughtered while in Olympic Village in a most gruesome hostage situation. Sport must be divorced from politics especially when it comes to children's sports. Shame on Iran.
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