Do you believe the Iranian's swimmer excuse for pulling out of the race?

Question

Athletes have competed in the Olympics with worse!

http://olympics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/iranian-swimmer-pulls-out-of-heat-that-includes-israeli/

http://olympics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/ioc-says-iran-may-face-discipline-in-israel-swimming-incident/

http://olympics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/ioc-accepts-irans-explanation-in-swim-incident/

Answer 1

YES we can't help it

Answer 2

its a pity politics has a bad role in sport.

Its was for ignorant yet political reason. Its like saying I wont jump in the pool with a black person.

Other reason could a fear of being caught as a drug cheat.  

Answer 3

Well the poor guy probably had no choice.  in some middle eastern countries, you could face jail time for even speaking to an israeli, so u often see teams pulling out of competitions because they are or could be competing with israelis.  

I guarantee you he got a call from the all mighty ayatollahs that threatened him and put him in his place

so don't blame him too much ... someone in his position who has worked so hard to be there will probably care less who he's swimming against ... he was just probably forced to withdraw