Iran: Celebrating ‘Historic’ Medals and Criticising the Referee · Global Voices
Fred Petrossian

This post is part of our special coverage London 2012 Olympics.
Iranians are celebrating their most memorable day in the history of the London 2012 Olympics. Athletes from Iran won two gold and two silver medals on Tuesday, 7 August, 2012.
Ghasem Rezaei added the third Olympic wrestling gold to Iran's haul in London, in the -96kg Greco-Roman final, making the Iranian team the best team in Greco-Roman category for the first time ever.
Ehsan Hadadi, an Iranian discus thrower got a silver medal. It is the first Iranian medal in Olympic Games history outside wrestling, weightlifting, and taekwondo. In the weightlifting category, Iran won a gold and a silver medal, adding to the joy of Iranians with a total of four golds and eight medals.
But one issue ruined the party: thousands of Iranians called Saeid Morad Abdvali's defeat in a wrestling match a conspiracy by the Olympic referee against Iran's World Champion.
A Facebook page to support Abdalvali was launched [fa] and received more than 27,000 likes in less than 24 hours. On this page all Iranians are invited to join in order to lighten Abdavali's sorrow. A video of the match was published too:
Persiss writes [fa]:
Abdvali became the victim of injustice…he with a lot of financial difficulty did his best to create honour for Iran..Wipe off the tears, you are the champion.
Irane Man (My Iran) says [fa]:
Abdavali was a simple fruit seller who sacrificed a lot in four years for the Olympic Games…people only applaud the ones who won gold medals…We should not leave this champion alone and support him.
This post is part of our special coverage London 2012 Olympics.