Iranian Olympic karateka Sajad Ganjzade has criticized Iran in an Instagram post for preventing its athletes from competing with Israeli opponents.
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Ganjzadeh, who won an Olympic gold medal in the men's +75 kg event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, said the policy forced Iranian athletes to only attend competitions in which Israel does not participate.
"We cannot tolerate this anymore. Not competing is more difficult than competing," he wrote in a post that was deleted shortly after.
Ganjzadeh is not the first Iranian athlete to criticize the regime, which has a history of withdrawing its athletes from competitions if they are matched against Israelis.
In 2019, Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei defected to Mongolia after being ordered to forefeit to avoid facing an Israeli competitor.
Much to the chagrin of the Iranian regime, he even dedicated the silver medal he won at the Tokyo Olympics to Israel.
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