Middle East in the Olympics

[Shapur Zol Aktaf]

LOL...


Iran is at 23th place. Mashallah Iran.

London 2012 Iran took 17th place.

This is our second best olympics if we solely look at the amount of our medals. I'm not disappointed, but when we compare our raking we should target to end in the top 10. We have been 14th in 1956 and 17th 2012 and 19th in 1968.

 

[Aramagedon]

This is our second best olympics if we solely look at the amount of our medals. I'm not disappointed, but when we compare our raking we should target to end in the top 10. We have been 14th in 1956 and 17th 2012 and 19th in 1968.

Right. I also believe Iran deserve to be one of top 10. perhaps we are among top 10 in future olympics which is very possible. BTW being among top 20 is good enough also, remarking that we were 17th in 2012 and now 25th (not that bad). we are the best ever Muslim/Mena olympics team. other Muslim/Mena countries are not even close to us.

 

[Deliorman]

About Turkey: I can't say I am disappointed as there was some nice things done by our athletes there but I can say we could have done better than that especially considering our past history in the games.

A gold, 3 silvers and 4 bronze medals in 4 different sports is not that bad but we could have won more as stupid mistakes and bad luck in the last seconds in the Judo, Taekwondo and Women's Basketball were costing us medals in those disciplines. Of course referees also robbed us in some cases- like in 68kg. category in Men's Taekwondo where referees gave points they shouldn't against our fighter and that costed him a match for the bronze medal and especially in the quarter final match in boxing 64kg. category where referees gave the match to the German boxer and were boo-ed by the people in the arena after that because the better fighter was obviously robbed. Overall the referees in lot's of sports were awfully bad and biased but it's all finished now... Some of the guys with silver medals could have won golds but obviously they were not prepared as good as their opponents but it's nice that most our medalists are still young and have the chance to win medals and do better next time.

Some of our athletes made some really good results in some sports even if they didn't get a medal there. In some of the competitions in athletics our guys finished 8th, 6th, 7th or qualified to the finals which is a small success for every athlete competing against athletes from countries with much bigger traditions in those disciplines. We had some young guys who made some respectable results in sailing and archery. Our women's basketball team played really good and deserved to qualify to the semi finals but even without that our girls showed that they are one of the best teams in the world in this sport.

Let's see what happens in 2020.

ps Kazakhstan with 3 golds, 5 silvers and 9 bronze medals, Uzbekistan with 4 golds, 2 silvers and 7 bronze medals and Azerbaijan with 1 gold, 7 silvers and 10 bronze medals also had nice Olympics for them.... I am impressed.

 

[mike2000 is back]

About Turkey: I can't say I am disappointed as there was some nice things done by our athletes there but I can say we could have done better than that especially considering our past history in the games.

A gold, 3 silvers and 4 bronze medals in 4 different sports is not that bad but we could have won more as stupid mistakes and bad luck in the last seconds in the Judo, Taekwondo and Women's Basketball were costing us medals in those disciplines. Of course referees also robbed us in some cases- like in 68kg. category in Men's Taekwondo where referees gave points they shouldn't against our fighter and that costed him a match for the bronze medal and especially in the quarter final match in boxing 64kg. category where referees gave the match to the German boxer and were boo-ed by the people in the arena after that because the better fighter was obviously robbed. Overall the referees in lot's of sports were awfully bad and biased but it's all finished now... Some of the guys with silver medals could have won golds but obviously they were not prepared as good as their opponents but it's nice that most our medalists are still young and have the chance to win medals and do better next time.

Some of our athletes made some really good results in some sports even if they didn't get a medal there. In some of the competitions in athletics our guys finished 8th, 6th, 7th or qualified to the finals which is a small success for every athlete competing against athletes from countries with much bigger traditions in those disciplines. We had some young guys who made some respectable results in sailing and archery. Our women's basketball team played really good and deserved to qualify to the semi finals but even without that our girls showed that they are one of the best teams in the world in this sport.

Let's see what happens in 2020.

ps Kazakhstan with 3 golds, 5 silvers and 9 bronze medals, Uzbekistan with 4 golds, 2 silvers and 7 bronze medals and Azerbaijan with 1 gold, 7 silvers and 10 bronze medals also had nice Olympics for them.... I am impressed.

So Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan did better than/rank above any other middle Eastern/Muslim country??

 

[Deliorman]

So Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan did better than/rank above any other middle Eastern/Muslim country??

Yep. Kazakhstan even won less gold medals than in London where they won 7 golds. Uzbekistan dominated on the boxing rings where they won 3 golds, 2 silvers and 2 bronze medals. Overall Kazakhstan now ranks as the second most successful Muslim country in the Summer Olympics history with one more gold and one more medal than Iran.

 

[mike2000 is back]

Yep. Kazakhstan even won less gold medals than in London where they won 7 golds. Uzbekistan dominated on the boxing rings where they won 3 golds, 2 silvers and 2 bronze medals. Overall Kazakhstan now ranks as the second most successful Muslim country in the Summer Olympics history with one more gold and one more medal than Iran.

Wow.... that's surprsing. Never knew that. Big/massive countries with large population like Turkey,Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia,KSA etc should be the ones leading the Muslim world in medal rankings. Surprised they aren't doing so well.

 

[Deliorman]

Well actually Turkey is the leading Muslim country in the all time Olympic medal table but still I won't say we are doing really good overall especially when I see smaller countries with more golds than us- in 2016 and in general.
Just in recent times investments in sports in Turkey became bigger- in training facilities, stadiums, indoor arenas, tennis courts, swimming pools etc.. In the decades before that sport have never been a priority to the different governments and if we had some success it was mostly because of the luck to have exceptional talents in the particular sport and the traditions we have in it. For example for communist countries sporting events were a propaganda tool to show the supremacy of their ideology in front of the world. To show it they were using all the means necessary. For most of the western countries it was also a policy to develop sports and to invest a lot since the traditions there are bigger and resources have always been bigger than those in Turkey.... Add the fact that sports are a big business there and the fact that whole laboratories and pharmaceutical conglomerates are working together with the sports federations in most leading sports nations + that their lobby in international federations is much bigger which also is really important and voila.

In my previous post I wrote what I think about Turkey at Rio 2016- we did fine but could/should have achieved much more. Still I am not disappointed from athletes who reached finals in disciplines where it was impossible to get a medal and I am not disappointed from young and inexperienced athletes for whom it was a success to reach a semifinal and even to qualify to the Olympics as it can always be a motivation for them to go forward. A lot of those Olympic sports who bring a lot of medals are not even popular in Turkey and there is hardly any people who practice them or are interested in them but we should try to popularize them among young people and try to develop them. A lot of work should be done in the different sports federations. Historically we are really good at wrestling and weightlifting, also different martial arts are popular and we win medals in those sports but times change and a lot of new nations (especially from the ex USSR) started to win and to make the competition there harder so I also believe that we should do more in those sports too. Turkey is good at sports where an athlete can win just one medal because you can't compete in different categories. While at the same time you see countries and athletes who win a bunch of medals in the same sport just because there is 3-4-5-10 disciplines where one athlete can win 3-4-5-10 medals if he wants to. You see countries like Jamaica or Kenya who take most medals in short/long distance running and are in front in the medal table of countries who are better than them in most other sports. So it is not really fair to assume how good a country is in sports in general just based on the total medals won in the Games. Yet Olympics are a great competition that should be used to show friendship and understanding between athletes and people in general as it has a special spirit... sports should unite us and not be used as a place to measure our dicks. Sports shouldn't be used as a political tool but with so much interests, money and rivalries involved it is not possible.

Yet you are right that Turkey should step it's game up as I believe we have the potential to be better in sports in general and I believe we will be as a lot of work is done for it right now.

 

[Aramagedon]

one more gold and one more medal than Iran.

I forgot they are Muslim countries also.

Wow.... that's surprsing. Never knew that. Big/massive countries with large population like Turkey,Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia,KSA etc should be the ones leading the Muslim world in medal rankings. Surprised they aren't doing so well.

The countries you named excluding Iran, Indonesia and Turkey took no medals. No country is any better than IRAN in all over MENA. Iran took 17th place in London 2012 and 25th place in Rio 2016.

 

[mike2000 is back]

I forgot they are Muslim countries also.

The countries you named excluding Iran, Indonesia and Turkey took no medals. No country is any better than IRAN in all over MENA. Iran took 17th place in London 2012 and 25th place in Rio 2016.

I know. But all countries in the region(Iran included ) fare poorly. Iran with a population of over 80million should be winning far more medals. Granted Iran only does better when compared to even more weaker middle eastern Countries. For a small country like Uzbekistan to perform better than all countries in the region means something is wrong.

 

[waz]

Wow.... that's surprsing. Never knew that. Big/massive countries with large population like Turkey,Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia,KSA etc should be the ones leading the Muslim world in medal rankings. Surprised they aren't doing so well.

These folks are tough as nails bro (UZ,KZ,AZ). They are of natural fighting stock, hence why all their medals are in combat sports. Very few nations can do what they do, and that with minimal investment.

 

[Solomon2]

When a refusal to shake hands means so much more
AUGUST 21, 2016, 3:13 PM

I'll be the first to say it’s not the end of the world just because an Egyptian athlete refused to shake hands with his Israeli counterpart at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro last week.

After all, the Egyptian is the one who violated judo etiquette. He’s the one whom the fans booed. I won’t lose any sleep over his petty insult, and I doubt many Israelis will either. But the incident, as small as it was, does offer some food for thought about much bigger issues, such as the prospects for peace between Israel and her Arab neighbors.

The Judo Snubber, Mr. Islam El Shehaby, was born on August 1, 1982. In other words, he was born nearly five years after Anwar Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem. Four years after the successful Camp David negotiations. Three and a half years after the signing of the Israel-Egypt peace treaty. Three months after the final Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai.

Which is to say that El Shehaby has never known anything but peace with Israel. Throughout his entire life, Egypt has been at peace, not at war, with the Jewish state. So if El Shehaby hates Israel, it’s not because of anything in his personal experience. He’s not a bitter war veteran. He didn’t watch his friends die in some tank battle with the Israelis. There has to be some other reason to explain his hostility. And there is.

The peace treaty requires both parties to “abstain from hostile propaganda” against each other. Former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin insisted on that clause because he understood that for peace to last, it has to be between peoples, not just between leaders.

Leaders, of course, come and go. Sadat was assassinated in October 1981, even before Israel’s final withdrawal. Begin resigned from office in October 1983. For peace between Israel and Egypt to endure, both countries had to consciously educate their people to accept it.

The Israeli public didn’t need much convincing. The Israelis, after all, were the victims. They were the ones who were desperate for peace. And even those who had some qualms about Israel’s enormous concessions — giving up the entire Sinai peninsula, surrendering the oil fields, tearing down the Jewish communities in the Yamit region — soon retreated from their opposition.

Not so in Egypt. Neither Sadat nor his successors ever made any serious effort to educate the younger generation to accept peace. The Egyptian government-controlled media, mosques, and schools continued to spout hatred of Israel and Jews.

As a child, Islam El Shehaby no doubt was inculcated with the same anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hatred that dominated Egyptian society before there was a peace treaty. Real peace never took hold. The treaty has been, and remains, little more than a long-term ceasefire.

Now, a ceasefire is of course much better than gunfire. But a ceasefire is a fragile thing. If it’s not backed by deep, wide-ranging societal support for peace, then it could be broken at any time, by some new leader who decides he prefers war. And because the Egyptian public has been educated and conditioned for war all these years, it will back him up.

That’s the problem with Islam El Shehaby. He continues to view Israel as the enemy, all these years later. That’s why he could not bring himself to shake the hand of his Israeli judo opponent. There may be “peace,” but he’s ready for war–ready and willing.

Which is why so many Israelis are reluctant about the idea of establishing a Palestinian state next door. If 34 years after the peace treaty was signed, an Egyptian athlete still will not even shake hands with an Israeli, what does that portend for peace with the Palestinians, whose entire society is drenched in hatred of Israel and Jews?

The consolation that Israelis can derive from peace with Egypt is that although it’s shallow, at least most of the Egyptian army is separated from Israel by the Sinai. A Palestinian army, however, would be just a few miles from Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem. That’s too much of a risk to ask Israelis to take. They have every right to wait until they see meaningful changes in Palestinian society before they start talking about taking those kinds of chances. The non-handshake in Rio de Janeiro is a reminder of that reality.

Stephen M. Flatow is an attorney living in New Jersey. He is the father of Alisa Flatow who was murdered by Palestinian terrorists in April 1995 and founder of the Alisa Flatow Memorial Scholarship Fund.