More than 200 Iranian athletes have called for the dissolution of Iran’s current National Olympic Committee in a second open letter addressed to International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry. In the letter, the signatories state unequivocally that the committee does not represent Iranian sport.
Among the signatories are prominent Olympic figures including Saeid Mollaei, Javad Mahjoub, Samaneh Khoshghadam and Hamoon Derafshipour, along with many others who are now part of the IOC Refugee Team. The letter was also signed by former FC Bayern Munich player Ali Karimi, Iranian chess grandmaster Mitra Hejazipour, sports academic Dr Mojtaba Pourbakhsh, France national wrestling coach Ayoub Azmoudeh, prominent Netherlands diving figure Yal Bashi and former Iranian national water polo player Reza Soleimani.
The letter was sent to the editorial desk of Sportsin by the Association of Freedom-Seeking Iranian Athletes and is published here in full.
Second Open Letter to Kirsty Coventry, President of the International Olympic Committee
Date: 09.03.2026
Madam President,
In our first letter, we laid out the facts. Iranian sport is not governed by athletes. It is controlled by the ideological machinery of the Islamic Republic. Its federations are not independent institutions. They are extensions of state power.
We documented systemic discrimination against women. We exposed the exclusion of Baha’i athletes on religious grounds. We highlighted antisemitic policies that force Iranian athletes to withdraw rather than compete against Israelis. We detailed the institutional presence of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at the highest levels of sports administration, including the National Olympic and Paralympic Committees.
The National Olympic and Paralympic Committees of the Islamic Republic do not represent Iranian sport. They represent a regime. They function as political instruments, not sporting bodies. Their mandate is ideological alignment, not athletic excellence. For decades, the Islamic Republic has used sport as a tool to export its doctrine while presenting a sanitized image to the international community.
Through calculated diplomacy inside Olympic structures, regime-aligned figures have secured influential positions. Kaveh Mehrabi, who now holds a senior directors’ role within the IOC framework, has two records of avoiding competition against Israeli opponents. Such actions are a direct violation of the Olympic Charter. He has never publicly clarified whether those withdrawals were voluntary or imposed by state pressure. More importantly, he has never spoken out about the systematic coercion faced by Iranian athletes ordered to forfeit matches against Israelis.
“Silence in this context is not neutrality. It shields a discriminatory policy”
Soraya Aghaei, elevated to IOC membership with your support, likewise cannot claim to represent the athletes of Iran. She has issued no condemnation of the violent crackdowns carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps against Iranian civilians, including athletes. She is aware that athletes have been killed. She knows many remain imprisoned. Some face execution. Yet she has chosen silence.
At the national level, the President of Iran’s Olympic Committee, Mahmoud Khosravi Vafa, is a senior IRGC figure. He was welcomed at the Winter Olympic Games in Milan under IOC invitation and actively lobbied in support of Soraya Aghaei’s candidacy. This is not incidental. It reflects a system in which political loyalty outweighs sporting integrity.
Madam President, the Olympic Movement claims to stand for equality, neutrality and human dignity. Those principles are incompatible with enforced forfeits based on nationality, religious exclusion, gender segregation and the imprisonment of athletes.
As the first woman to lead the International Olympic Committee, your response to the repression of Iranian women athletes and the politicisation of Iranian sport will define more than a presidency. It will define whether the Olympic Charter is a living document or a ceremonial text.
In moments of injustice, silence can be perceived as complicity rather than neutrality. We respectfully urge you to act with courage and in accordance with your stated principles by considering the dissolution of the National Olympic Committee of Iranian regime.
Click the link below to view the full list of signatories
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