US Wrestlers in Iran: Sports Diplomacy Wins

For a few days at least, the western Iranian city of Kermanshah put itself above the ongoing tensions between the Islamic Republic and the United States. On February 16 and 17, the city hosted the 2017 Freestyle Wrestling World Cup, a victory for the diplomatic power of sport over political feuds.

On February 16, Iranian wrestler and Olympic medalist Komeil Ghasemi beat his US competitor Nick Gwiazdowski 5-0. This gave Iran a 5-3 win in the gold medal final. 

But it almost didn't happen. On February 3, in response to President Trump’s executive order banning travel from Iran and six other Muslim-majority countries, the Iranian foreign ministry announced that US wrestlers would be barred from Iran. But then, Rasoul Khadem, the president of Iran’s Wrestling Federation, directly appealed to Iran’s Sports Minister Masoud Soltanifar. In less than 48 hours, the Iranian foreign ministry reversed its decision.

Iranians and the people of Kermanshah pulled out all the stops to welcome the American wrestlers, treating them as though they were their own champions. Teams from Russia, Azerbaijan and Turkey — three important countries in the world of wrestling — did not get anywhere near the same warm welcome when they arrived. It was as though the world of sports wanted to drive out politics even before the World Cup started.

Awe and Respect

“Unlike in politics, in wrestling there is a great deal of awe and respect between the US and Iran,” wrote a German correspondent for CNN on February 16. And it’s no wonder. Not long ago, in September of 2016, Rasoul Khadem received 76 votes, the highest number possible, for his bid to become a member of the governing board of the International Wrestling Foundation. A day earlier, USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender officially announced his support for Khadem.

But the friendly relations between the two federations goes back further. In March 2015, USA Wrestling, the governing body for freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling, sent a letter to the Iranian wrestling federation, inviting Iranian wrestlers to participate in an international friendly competition in New York’s historic Times Square billed as “United In the Square.” Iran was invited to send wrestlers in four weights for young athletes — 55, 60, 74 and 84 kilos — and two weights for adult athletes — 74 and 86 kilos.

The friendly competition between Iranian and American young wrestlers was sponsored by New York City’s Beat the Streets (BTSNY), an NGO that declares its mission as being “to improve the lives and potential of New York City student-athletes through the benefits and skills acquired by participating in amateur wrestling.”

Good relations between the Iranian and American wrestling communities owes a good deal to Hooman Tavakolian, an Iranian-American businessman in New York and a member of the BTSNY board of directors. He was a wrestler while studying psychology in New York and is the founder of the “Become Your Own Dream Scholarship” that supports young student wrestlers. His relationship with USA Wrestling has made him a bridge between Iranian and American wrestling. In 2014 he took a selected team of American wrestlers for a friendly competition to Jouybar, a city in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran.

But not everything has always gone the way that the athletes from both countries have wanted. On occasion, politics has reared its head. For example, during the 1985 world wrestling championship in Budapest when Iranian wrestler Mohammad Hassan Mohebbi lost to his American opponent William Scherr, Esmail Davoudi Shamsi, the head of Iran’s Physical Education Organization at the time, ordered Mohebbi not to stand on the podium during the ceremony so that no Iranian representative would be present when the US national anthem was played.

Now, of course, it is a little different. Since 1998, American athletes have visited Iran on a regular basis, and now, after a political scuffle, they are in Kermanshah — and pleasantly surprised by the welcome they have received.

“In Iran We are Heroes”

Kyle Snyder, the youngest Olympic gold medalist and the youngest World Champion in American wrestling history, told CNN that “"[While] there's a little bit of turmoil politically, you definitely don't see that within the sport. We respect each other as competitors and as people."

Another US Olympics gold medalist, Jordan Burroughs, also spoke enthusiastically about the team’s reception in Iran. “In America we are misfits,”, he told CNN. “In Iran we are heroes, so it is really cool to see... [It's about] seeing the people, being engaged with them and understanding their culture as much as we can before we make any big decisions about who they truly are.”

The friendship between Iranian wrestler Reza Yazdani, who competes against Kyle Snyder in the same weight division, is well-documented. Yazdani is not fluent in English (and Snyder is not fluent in Persian), but the two have developed a friendship that is clear to see.

“A World Cup without the Americans would not have been a real World Cup," Rasoul Khadem told CNN.

And Snyder seemed to feel the same.  “I have been wrestling overseas for three years now and every Iranian I have ever come in contact with has been extremely respectful, extremely polite.” 

These friendships are likely to persist, despite politics, as they have for decades now.