Not in the Spirit of the Olympics

Last weekend, Mohammad Alirezaei became the most recent Iranian athlete to bail out of a competition where he would have been matched up against an Israeli. Alirezaei was set to compete against Israel's Tom Be'eri in the 100 meter breastroke, when he dropped out at the last moment claiming to be sick. Canada's "The Star" opines, "Having Israelis and Iranians swimming together at the same time in the same pool would have created one of those magic Olympic moments, adding to that fiction we love that the Olympics are apolitical." Indeed, there plenty of examples of athletes from conflicting nations overcoming grudes in Olympic history, including even this Olympics when Russian and Georgian female air pistol atheletes embraced on the podium after medaling.