Calls Mount for Iran’s Ban from International Sports as Regime Executes Wrestlers

Critics of Iran’s clerical regime are intensifying calls for the country’s exclusion from international sporting events amid reports of athletes being killed and imprisoned for participating in anti-government protests.

Wrestling, a national pastime in Iran, has been particularly affected by the regime’s crackdown on demonstrators seeking to end 47 years of Islamist rule. According to London-based Iran International, 15-year-old wrestler Parsa Lorestani was killed by a government sniper during a protest in Khorramabad on January 8. The young athlete from Zagheh in western Iran represents one of thousands of protesters reportedly executed by authorities.

“Another wrestler murdered. Erfan Kari was 20. A champion,” wrote Sardar Parshei on social media. Parshei, a world champion Greco-Roman wrestler and former head coach of Iran’s national team, added that Kari “could have been an Olympian. Instead, the Islamic regime shot him for protesting. Other wrestlers are still in prison. Be their voice. Save them.”

The situation has gained international attention as 19-year-old wrestler Saleh Mohammadi faces imminent execution. His case has prompted the U.S. State Department to demand Iran halt the execution, while the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has remained largely silent on the matter.

Prominent Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad told her nearly 787,000 social media followers that “The Islamic Republic has slaughtered over 40,000 protesters, thousands of them athletes, children, teenagers, young people, women, men, and from various sports disciplines.” She emphasized that the regime “shamelessly exploits international sporting events to legitimize itself and whitewash its crimes.”

Alinejad pointed out that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union, controls all aspects of Iranian society, including sports. “FIFA, the International Olympic Committee and all global sports organizations must refuse to legitimize a system that massacres its own people and athletes for demanding freedom and human dignity,” she said.

When questioned about potentially banning Iran or intervening in Mohammadi’s case, the IOC referred to a January 29 statement saying, “We will continue to work with our Olympic stakeholders to help where we can, often through quiet sport diplomacy. The IOC remains in touch with the Olympic community from Iran.”

Afsoon Roshanzamir Johnston, the first American female wrestler to win a medal in world championship competition, expressed her distress over the situation. “It is with a very sad and heavy heart that I speak for the Iranian people and the dire situation currently unfolding in my homeland,” she said. “Having been a young girl in Iran during the 1979 Revolution, I vividly remember the feeling of the clocks being turned back 100 years as women’s freedoms and fundamental human rights were stripped away overnight.”

Roshanzamir Johnston highlighted that women in Iran are denied basic rights to participate in athletics, while young male wrestlers face torture and execution. “We can no longer turn a blind eye to this brutality,” she said. “The world must stand with the people of Iran before more of our bravest souls are lost.”

Dan Russell, executive director of the U.S.-based Wrestling for Peace organization, acknowledged the complexities of sports and diplomacy but stressed the importance of solidarity among athletes. “Neutrality cannot mean indifference when lives are at stake,” Russell said. “Sport must take a stand for peace, respect, and human dignity.”

Not all critics support a complete ban, however. Potkin Azarmehr, a British-Iranian expert on the Islamic Republic, suggested that allowing Iran’s wrestling team to compete could create opportunities for defections and protests that would reach Iranian viewers. “The ban would just be a blanket victimization of other wrestlers who have trained long hours for this,” he said, while suggesting that sports organizations should “make some statement and make sure spectators are allowed to display pictures of the fallen wrestlers.”

When contacted for comment, a spokesman for Iran’s UN mission told reporters that “The mission declined to comment.”