Severe Sanctions for Two Iranian Wrestlers for Doping

The United World Wrestling has announced a lifetime ban for Taleb Nematpour and a four-year ban for Mohammad Hossein Mohammadian from participating in all competitions in this sport. Despite Mohammadian's name being added to the list of banned athletes on the official United World Wrestling website, this news had not been reflected in Iranian media until early Sunday. Taleb Nematpour is the world champion in Greco-Roman wrestling from 2013, and Mohammad Hossein Mohammadian is the bronze medalist in freestyle wrestling from the 2014 World Championships. Previously, it was said that Nematpour's ban would end in a month, and he was even called up by Mohammad Bana for the national team camp. However, according to regulations, he has been sentenced to the heaviest possible punishment in sports for using performance-enhancing drugs for the second time. Although Taleb is not allowed to wrestle, he announced his retirement from the sport last month, stating, 'I feel that as a soldier of my homeland, I have fulfilled a small debt with great suffering and hardship.' Nematpour, whose doping test was positive at the 2014 World Cup, emphasized that he is announcing his retirement from competitive sports after 'passing through a world of unspoken pain.' Now one may ask, can this 'debt' that has led to a lifetime ban be acceptable to sports enthusiasts? And now that the United World Wrestling has officially announced the ban, does he not feel obliged to recount part of the 'world of unspoken pain' mentioned in his statement? Nematpour is not the only Iranian Greco-Roman wrestler to be permanently banned from this sport. Before him, Alireza Gharibi in the super heavyweight category was also banned for life from wrestling competitions. Amir Ali Akbari, the world champion in Greco-Roman wrestling, also lost his right to compete forever due to being banned twice, like Gharibi and Nematpour. He is now active in mixed martial arts (MMA) and continues his training in Thailand. Mohammad Hossein Mohammadian was considered one of the future stars of Iranian wrestling. Despite failing in the national team selection competitions, he accompanied the national team at the World Championships in Las Vegas by the decision of Rasoul Khadem. He is the son of Asgari Mohammadian, who has two silver Olympic medals from Seoul and Barcelona. Mohammadian won the Asian gold medal in Doha this year. The United World Wrestling has stated that the violation by Mohammadian occurred 'out of competition.' Twenty days ago, surprise tests were conducted by NADO officials in Iran on eight prominent freestyle wrestlers of the national team. NADO officers collected samples from Komeil Ghasemi, Masoud Esmaeilpour, Iman Sadeqi, Mohammad Hossein Mohammadian, Hassan Rahimi, Hassan Yazdani, Alireza Karimi, and Seyyed Ahmad Mohammadi. Among this group, only Mohammad Hossein Mohammadian's name is listed in the United World Wrestling's banned athletes. The names of several South American wrestlers who used banned substances in the Pan American Championships are also on this list, none of whom are well-known. Iranian wrestling has repeatedly faced bans on its champions at various age levels. From the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul to Abbas Jadidi at the 1993 World Championships in Toronto, and prior to that, widespread doping among Greco-Roman wrestlers and then numerous bans at youth and sometimes junior levels! To date, dozens of Iranian wrestlers have faced bans due to the use of banned substances. According to the United World Wrestling list, the two-year ban on Georgi Adishrashvili from Georgia will end next month. He has a European gold medal in the first weight class of freestyle wrestling. Less than a month remains of the ban on Apoorva Tyagi, the Asian youth champion from India. Zahra Outameradova (Uzbekistan) will also be able to return to competition in six months.