Over the last eight years, America has sent teams over to wrestle in Iran, and they have been met with the loudest cheers, especially for Olympic Gold Medalist and World Champion Jordan Burroughs (pictured below) of the University of Nebraska (and New Jersey before that). They appreciate excellence and want to be fans of our wrestling stars. We had been having, with no fanfare, the wrestling equivalent of the Chinese-American Ping-Pong diplomacy of the early 1970s.
I believe that this “Wrestling Diplomacy,” which has seen our teams compete in Iran, and Iranian teams compete in California and even in the middle of New York traffic ...
… helped to forge the ties that made the Iranian Nuclear Deal possible. Recently, the Iranians have allowed their women to join into the sport of wrestling. Everything is going along swimmingly until November of last year. It gets worse in January, when Trump signs an Executive Order banning foreign immigrants from seven countries, including Iran.
At immediate issue—besides nuclear bombs and rising international tensions—was the Wrestling World Cup scheduled for February 16-17 in Kermanshah, Iran.
The Iranian Foreign Minister reacted by threatening the visas of the American wrestling team. But American democracy (through the court system) and sanity prevailed. After courts held the Trump ban to be unconstitutional, the Iranian Foreign Minister rescinded his ban. The World Cup was on!
And what a Cup it was.
Iranians go crazy about wrestling. It is their national sport. They are also a wrestling super power. At this recent World Cup, the rumor was that the building that housed the spectacle had twice the number of fans in attendance than are usually allowed.
After two days of pool competition, it was clear that Iran and the United States would meet in the final. We were undefeated in our pool, having beaten the Russians and Azerbaijanis. The Iranians had beaten the Mongolians and the Indians. The video above gives you an idea of the energy of Iranian wrestling fans.
That video shows the final showdown between the United States and Iran. It started out lopsided, with the Iranians coming out strong. Jordan Burroughs, our Olympic Champion, finally gave us some momentum with a win. Then, their Olympic Champion, Yazdani, was pinned by a young American (that’s the picture at the top of the post). In the end, it came down to the heavyweights, and the Iranian heavy, Ghasemi, proved too strong.
At the premier forum for wrestling in the United States, you can find these threads: Congratulations to Iran and The Best Fans in Wrestling. I am so proud of our wrestling team, our wrestling fans, their wrestling team, and their wrestling fans.
And I’m so sick of Trump.