Inappropriate Politics at Beijing Games Continues
This weekend, the Iranian men's wheelchair basketball team competing at the Paralympic Games in Beijing quit the tournament. The reason given was "dissatisfaction" with their "schedule," although there is speculation that they quit because of the possibility they would play the Israeli team in the next round.
According to theTehran Times:
The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) and the International Paralympics Committee announced that Iran has pulled out of competition "due to their dissatisfaction with the draw proposed for the cross-over round and subsequent schedule".
The draw placed Iran and Israel on the same side of the bracket, so that if they both won their quarterfinal matches (against the USA and Canada, respectively) they would play each other in the semifinals.
We wrote about two similar incidents during the Olympic Games in August, when Iranian and Syrian swimmers pulled...