Saeid Mollaei won silver in judo at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday, then used his victory to honor the enemy of his home country.

Mollaei, who is originally from Iran but is competing for Mongolia, dedicated his silver medal to Israel. Iran and Israel have been in a proxy conflict since 1985.

According to The Jerusalem Post, Mollaei told an Israeli sports channel, "Thank you to Israel for all the good energy." He added, "This medal is dedicated to you as well, and I hope Israelis is happy with this victory, todah," which means "thank you" in Hebrew.

Mollaei's abandonment of Iran stems from an incident at the 2019 World Judo Championships in Tokyo.

There, Mollaei represented Iran and advanced to the semifinal. He was looking to defend his championship after winning gold at the previous year's event in Azerbaijan. But Iranian authorities ordered him to intentionally lose the match to ensure he wouldn't have to face the Israeli champion Sagi Muki in the final, he said.

The International Judo Federation this year called Iran's tampering "a serious breach and gross violation of the statutes of the IJF, its legitimate interests, its principles and objectives" and suspended the country from the event for four years.

After exposing what Iranian authorities had forced him to do, Mollaei fled the country and went into hiding. He found asylum in Germany in August 2019 on a two-year visa, then became a citizen of Mongolia in December 2019.

https://ca.yahoo.com/news/iranian-athlete-left-country-being-151214644.html