About Your Blogger Let's not waste too much time on stats. So very briefly:
I was a corporate attorney at a mega-firm in NYC. Now I work at a middle-market family-run independent insurance agency. I live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with my brilliant wife, who also happens to blog at Rosmania. (Check it out.)
Disclaimers Nothing contained on this site should be construed to be legal, business, insurance or tax advice. If you need professional legal advice, find a professional. There are plenty of them out there. If thet’re good, I think that they ultimately pay for themselves.
Also, the views and opinions expressed on this site are mine and mine alone. They should not, under any circumstances, be attributed to anyone other than me. (Not that anyone is trying to take credit for them.)
This is a dark day for the Olympics. Iran's world judo champion Arash Miresmaeili refused to compete against an Israeli opponent Sunday.
The official reason was that the Iranian didn't make weight for the match, but in Tehran, the Iranian National Olympic Committee said: "This is a general policy of our country to refrain from competing against athletes of the Zionist regime and Arash Miresmaeili has observed this policy."
So much for the Olympic dream of bridging the distance between people of different nations and fostering understanding and good-will.
The International Judo Federation (IJF) is trying to figure out whether any penalty would hit Miresmaeili alone or the entire Iranian team. The IJF already held an emergency meeting and plans to hold further talks on the issue Monday.
If the International Olympic Committee hopes to "uphold the ideal of sport transcending national barriers," swift and decisive action must be taken against any individuals or teams that violate those ideals. In this case, it appears that the Iranian team has a policy that is anathama to those ideals and it should be sanctioned.
