Ayatollah Khamenei Praises Alireza Karimi's 'Intentional Loss' to His Russian Opponent

Alireza Karimi, Iran's freestyle wrestling champion, intentionally lost to his Russian opponent during the Poland competitions at the request of his coaches to avoid facing an Israeli opponent in the next round. The Islamic Republic of Iran does not recognize Israel. In a short video shared on social media, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, praised Karimi's 'loss' and gifted him his agate ring. During this meeting, the Iranian leader said: '... Dear Sir! You did a great thing; what you did is akin to the work of Pourya-ye Vali; consider this as a deed before God and seek its reward from Him; keep this spiritual reward for yourself... I truly felt honored when I learned about your action.' However, this praise comes at a time when government interference in sports has been declared against the spirit of free sports by international federations and is prohibited. In an interview with Mehdi Rostampour, a sports expert at Radio Farda, this issue was discussed, and I first asked him to recount the story of Alireza Karimi's loss in the Poland freestyle wrestling competitions.