Best Ever

Congrats to all Afghans who are celebrating their first Olympic medal in history:

Ruhollah Nikpai, taekwondo – under 58 kg.

21 year old Nikpai wants to kick open the way for peace

“My training situation is a lot like the situation in my country,” he said. “It’s not good.”

Herat Press: “We won this medal with our bare hands”.  ما با دست خالی مدال گرفتیم

طعم نخستین مدال، زیر دندانهای نیکپا
آلبوم عکس: استقبال از روح الله نیکپا در کابل

Worst Ever …

… That’s how the Iranian press and blogosphere sums up our performance in the Olympics. No wonder, this is Iran’s worst ranking since 1948 (best ranking: 14th, Melbourne 1956).
Wrestling and weightlifting, the two traditional bastions of Iranian sports ended up with only one bronze medal, won by wrestler Morad Mohammadi.

No success for any of our girls in any field.
This failure is attributed to the lack of competence among the administrators, some trainers, the little time dedicated to trainings, in short much of the usual stuff which makes some our trivial affairs dysfunctional.

On the bright side, Ehsan Peighambari wins bronze in Wushu (I didn’t even know that it existed!) and a few hours ago, Hadi Saie won our only gold medal in taekwondo – 80kg, his third Olympic win (2 golds and a bronze). Well done Hadi!

A few links: نگاهی به تاريخچه حضور ايران در بازيهای المپيک

Iran Wrestling
تاریخچه پیدایش وزنه برداری در ایران
نظرسنجي: با توجه به نتایج کاروان ایران در المپیک ، چه پیشنهادی برای مسؤولان ارشد ورزش ایران دارید؟

تهران فردا: بلاگ هادی ساعی

Pahlavani

Courtesy of Kamyar Adl

In youtube
Traditional Iranian Martial Arts
Zoorkhaneh et pahlavani