The Failure of Six Pack Diplomacy

Ronnie Coleman, American world-champion bodybuilder and eight-time winner of the Mr. Olympia international competition, visited Iran on April 23, after a group called Persia Groups booked him to present a short series of seminars.

Aware that some hardliners may object to the visit, the organizers took the bodybuilder to Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in Tehran to pay his respects to those who gave their lives during the Iran-Iraq War. During his visit to the cemetery, he stopped at the grave of Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh, a former Lebanese seminary student — and who the Islamic Republic dubbed its “first martyr to die on a mission to kill Salman Rushdie.” Mazeh, died aged 21 while attempting to plant a bomb in a book in his London hotel on August 3, 1989. The image of Coleman visiting the grave was startling to say the least. 

Shortly after the incident at the cemetery, a photograph of the bodybuilder smiling and wrapped in an al-Nusra Front flag appeared online, fueling further debate and confusion. Al-Nusra is an offshoot of Al-Qaeda in Syria and Lebanon, currently at war with Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, one of Iran’s allies. Following the controversial photograph at Behesht-e Zahra and the online photo, Persia Groups dismissed criticisms and remarked that Coleman was an ignorant American who was unaware of the complex intricacies of Middle Eastern politics, including US-Iran relations.

Speaking to Coleman’s former trainer Brian Dobson, IranWire asked if the former Mr. Olympia could have been aware that he was inadvertently causing offence. “He probably doesn’t know the difference between Iran and Iraq,” Dobson said. “I would think he didn’t know about the cemetery. A bunch of Ronnie’s family served in the military in the U.S. He wouldn’t want to honor someone who might have killed our people.”

Dobson said that Coleman had not said to him anything about the trip to Iran, though the two men do not seen each other as regularly as they did when they were training together.

“He called me last week and asked me if anything had been sent here [to Dobson’s gym in Texas, Metroflex] for him and I said, yes, I’d put it in the office. He came here and got it and went straight to the airport. I didn’t even know where he was going. Someone just told me that he was flying to Iran that day. I said, “What?”

Coleman’s Instagram page states he went to Iran to attend the “first international fitness and bodybuilding seminar” on April 22 and 23. He also anticipated his visit to Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery, where he said he would pay tribute to victims of the Iran-Iraq War.

 

“Shameful” Prices

However, even before Coleman was linked to Al-Nusra, things began to go wrong, beginning with the outcry against the high price of his merchandise. Fans were informed they would have to pay $460 for a VIP seat and photograph with him, or $160 for a photo and T-shirt. There was also the option to pay for a scheduled training seminar for men and women, although this was canceled.

“Ronnie Coleman’s visit is part and parcel of the “corrupt mafia,” the part that deals with doping and body-enhancing drug manufacturing,” Yazdan Rad, a bodybuilding champion and former coach to Iran’s National Bodybuilding Team, told Tasnim News Agency. Rad said the prices were “shameful,” adding that in other countries the same things would only cost between five and 10 dollars.

“Rad is a veteran bodybuilder in Iran,” said professional wrestler and sports analyst, Mosayeb Sarvandi. “Professionally-speaking, he might not be at the same level as Ronnie Coleman, but in Iran, during his time, he was considered a star.”

According to Sarvandi, Persia Groups did not invite other prominent bodybuilders to Coleman’s seminars, despite some of them expressing an interest in going. Eventually, they were asked to pay an entrance fee, causing further outrage.

“I don’t mean Yazdan Rad himself,” Sarvandi said. “But I heard that certain people said that they would do their best to stop the seminars from happening.”

There was such an outcry over the visit that Mahmoud Goodarzi, the Iranian Sports Minister, felt it necessary to intervene. “Such activities aren’t really sports. The commercial aspects of them dominate,” he said.

Brian Dobson said Coleman would have enjoyed the seminars, and being given the opportunity to talk about something “he’d done all his life.” But he agreed that Coleman would have agreed to the trip primarily for financial reasons. “It’s one of the ways he makes money. He has a supplement company, the Ronnie Coleman Signature Company, and they promote that all over. It’s actually much bigger in Europe and Asia than it is here in America.”

 

Approval from the Ministry

“I’m not interested in these things, and I don’t welcome them,” said the sports minister, when asked about Coleman’s visit. “I was told that the invitation was issued by the private sector. But, of course, the private sector can’t do whatever it wants and call it sport.”

But Sarvandi disagreed. “Every foreigner who wants to compete in sports and seminars in Iran must be approved by the Foreign Council of the Sports Ministry. The council had approved Ronnie Coleman’s visit.”

“Persia Groups, which organized the program, offered the Iranian Bodybuilding Federation a percentage of the profits for Coleman’s trip to Iran. The federation accepted and sent a request to the ministry of sports and they approved it,” he said. “Even the ministry’s security department asked the police to ensure the safety of the champion during his stay in Iran. The police, of course, rejected that request and replied that it had nothing to do with his visit, but escorting athletes is not one of their responsibilities.”

Persia Groups scheduled the cemetery visit when it was announced that Coleman’s classes for women were canceled on grounds that it was not acceptable for women to take part in such activities. IranWire contacted the company about Coleman's trip. They said they did not consider the visit to be a success since the seminars did not go ahead. They then agreed to answer more questions via telephone, but then failed to answer subsequent telephone calls. 

“Before the seminars were canceled, the organizers, who were aware of the problems and the reactions it had stirred, attempted to soften the views of hardliner officials by taking Ronnie Coleman to Behesht-e Zahra,” says Sarvandi. “Coleman had no idea where he was going and what would be the political consequences. As a guest he obeyed his hosts and paid his respect to the soldiers who had given their lives for their country, something that is very well regarded in the United States. You must also take into account that Ronnie Coleman’s knowledge of political issues and US-Iranian relations is very meager.”

But Fred Fairbrass, former bodybuilder and founding member of RightSaidFred, a British band most famous for their hit single “I’m Too Sexy,” takes the view that professional athletes should educate themselves on relevant political issues before traveling.

“You need to be very mindful of your actions and inform yourself as best you can, especially in certain areas of the Middle East that would raise a red flag for many people,” said Fairbrass. “Having said that, in terms of whether sportspeople should go to countries with poor human rights records, people have to earn a living, so if countries with a dubious record offer someone work, it’s a toss-up between income and your conscience.

 

A Tool for Cultural Invasion

Following the incident, Jahan News, a site run by hardliner MP Alireza Zakani, published a lengthy feature on Ronnie Coleman’s life.

“When there is talk of cultural invasion and Western cultural schemes for independent societies in the East, some people immediately frown and pout and accuse them of turning to conspiracy theories by tying disparate things together in order to portray the world as black,” read the article. “But the truth is that this cultural invasion exists and, unfortunately, it has seeped deep into our society. The foundations of bodybuilding are totally Western.”

Vatan-e Emrouz newspaper, which is managed by hardliner MP Mehrdad Bazrpash, went even further. In its April 25 issue, the paper told its readers that the CIA had begun a new project called “Bridge” that was intended to “softly” topple the Iranian regime from the inside. “It’s not for nothing that in recent months more Americans are coming to Iran,” it said.

According to Persia Groups, Ronnie Coleman refused to accept his promised payment of $150,000 at the end of his trip. Coleman was also stopped from leaving the airport for several hours until the organizers were able to solve the issue and buy him tickets for a different flight.

Just before Coleman left Iran, one commentator on Twitter remarked sarcastically, “the fact that Ronnie Coleman is yet to be arrested as a spy is a reward for the prayers that he recited over the martyrs’ graves.”