IRGC member wins Iran’s first gold at the Olympics

Javad Foroughi, a 41-year-old member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) won Iran’s first gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

Javad won the men’s 10-meter air pistol competition today and dedicated his success to the country’s supreme leader.

The IRGC member won Iran’s first-ever shooting gold medal with a Games record total of 244.8 in the final.

According to Iranian media, Foroughi who is a nurse at the IRGC-owned Baghiyyatollah hospital in Tehran seldom practised shooting in the hospital basement.

The 41-year-old gold medalist at Tokyo Olympics dedicated his medal to one of the 12 Shia Imams and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

“I dedicate my medal to Imam Mahdi and my supreme leader,” Foroughi told the semi-official Tasnim news agency after his win.

The IRGC staff said he was dispatched to Syria in 2012-2013, serving there for two years as part of the IRGC’s medical team.

Foroughi’s win divided Iranians on social media. While some celebrated the achievement, others attacked Foroughi, saying they do not view his victory as theirs due to his membership in the IRGC and involvement in Syria.

“Bravo, Mr Javad Foroughi. We really need these triumphs, these joys. Bravo for making history,” US-based Iranian journalist Fereshteh Ghazi wrote in Persian on Twitter.

In response to Ghazi, Iran-based activist and former political prisoner Hossein Ronaghi wrote: “When someone who played a role in the massacre of the Syrian people wins a medal, it is neither a happy nor historic occasion. It is a shame for Iran! We should be ashamed, not happy, Ms Ghazi!”