Statements in Meeting with Medalists of Scientific Olympiads and Members of the Youth National Volleyball Team

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Thanks be to God, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon our master Muhammad and his pure family, and God's curse be upon all their enemies.

For me, this meeting is a very sweet and desirable session; because the active participants of this meeting, the speakers of this meeting, the indicators of this meeting are the very elements that I have hope in for the future of this country and the future of the revolution; that is, motivated and faithful youth.

Fortunately, in the statements you made, I observed signs of depth and insight; that is, I saw that the words are those that arise from thought, wisdom, and rationality. This is very important for us. It is very important for me to see that our youth think and speak based on thought and precision. Many of the points that were mentioned are acceptable to me; now I am currently speaking about the issues of you dear medalists; as for the dear volleyball players, God willing, I will say a few words later.

First of all, I thank you for the medals you kindly presented to me, which of course is not a gift to a person; I am fully aware of this; this gift is to a symbol, to a system, to a truth. In fact, you have envisioned a truth, and you are confirming that truth by presenting the medals. I certainly thank you; I accept this valuable and very important gift from you dear ones, and then I will return the medals, because I want you to keep them, to have them, to keep them with you. We take pride in your pride, and we become honored by your honor; you should know this. In every field, in every arena where our youth show their worth and stand tall, the country becomes proud, the system becomes proud, and those who are fond of the system become proud; those who have worked, struggled, and spent their lives to establish this system will become proud; your honor is the source of pride for the nation and all of us.

I will just mention two or three brief points. First, from the points you mentioned, whatever has a proposal or a thoughtful precision - which was present among these discussions - we will, God willing, pursue; both the proposals and the points of precision you mentioned. If we need to recommend to someone, we will certainly do so, God willing; that is, your words, your statements, your writings will not go unanswered, God willing.

I will mention two or three points: one is that the path of excellence is an endless path. It is not the case that we say this youth is an intellectual and mental elite, now they have received a medal, and the matter is over; no, this medal is one of the signs of your movement in a path; a path of excellence, a path of effort that arises from a specific capacity and ability; in this path, you must move, you must strive. Well, when you reach a medal, it indicates that you have progressed a bit in this path; however, in every field you are in, you must continue this progress, you must work, strive, and think. Do not let this capacity and talent remain hidden and come to an end; do not let this happen. My belief is that human ability, the capacity of humans - all humans, even non-elites - is an extraordinary capacity; however, one may have an endless capacity in one aspect of life, another in another aspect, but all these capacities exist; the collection has a collection of capacities. These capacities are endless; do not let yourself stop halfway and not continue your work and path.

My dear ones! We still have a lot of work to do. You see, there was a time in history when we were at the forefront of national and public knowledge in the world; there was a time when it was like this; then gradually a decline occurred; this decline is not a matter of fault or problem. Well, countries, nations, and civilizations rise and fall, and one cannot expect; sometimes they decline, sometimes they advance; however, in the last couple of centuries, with the entry of foreigners and the implementation of their policies in the country, one feels that this decline and regression is no longer a natural matter but rather imposed upon us. I do not know how much you are interested in and love to know history; my recommendation is that you should definitely familiarize yourselves with the history of the last couple of centuries; many truths will become clear to you. They have kept us behind in the true sense of the word; during the Qajar dynasty in one way, during the Pahlavi dynasty in another way; we were kept behind. Iranian talent is above the average global talent. I once said this many years ago, and I felt that some had doubts; today this statement is being repeated and said in the world that Iranian talent is higher talent. Therefore, we were kept behind; we lagged; the world advanced, human knowledge advanced. Despite all the movement that has occurred after the revolution, especially in the last twenty years, where there has been a very good scientific movement and many works have been done, we still have not been able to advance the frontiers of knowledge, we have not been able to advance the frontiers of technology; we still have not been able to. This work must be done; who should do it? Who other than you should do it? Your generation and the generation after you are the ones who must produce, build.

Today, our effort is to continue successfully on the path that others have opened; today we are among the top five or six countries in the world in nanotechnology; there is no doubt about it; but who discovered nanotechnology? This is important; I want you to discover dozens, hundreds of [similar] nanotechnologies; I want you to discover dozens, hundreds of scientific phenomena in biotechnology. The world is very vast, the natural world has great depth, and there are many things to discover that we have not discovered; just as for thousands of years, this electric force existed in the world, in nature, and humans had not discovered it; then they discovered it. Today, there may be millions of phenomena that affect human life - like electric force - that exist in nature and have not been discovered; these must be discovered; discover these, pursue them, progress. This requires that this essence of excellence in you be elevated; this must not stop. You are elites, you are dear and esteemed because of your excellence; there is no doubt about this. Now, even if, as our dear youth said, they do not appreciate you and do not give importance to your excellence, but you are elites, without a doubt; however, this does not mean that your path ends here; "that is, therefore, you no longer need to strive more because you are elite"; no, you must strive, you must work, you must increase your inherent capacity; in all fields, we need this and must move forward. Therefore, this is my first recommendation: continue your movement and continue your work.

The second issue is that if you want to be truly useful for your country, you must maintain and strengthen a revolutionary outlook, a foundational perspective based on Islamic thought within yourselves. Today, fortunately, I see [considering] what is felt in your words, this outlook exists in you; strengthen it as much as you can. The insight that I have emphasized and discussed so much is because of this; if we do not pursue this revolutionary outlook, we will lag behind, our progress will stop; even if there is progress among our individuals, it will not benefit the country, just as it was in the past, during the tyranny. At that time, we also had elites, but these elites did not serve the country; now, in addition to the fact that capacities did not manifest and talents did not emerge, the little that did emerge was to the benefit of others and was placed in the service of others. Strengthen and maintain the revolutionary thought and outlook within yourselves.

And do not forget to rely on God and seek help from the Lord; this is my strong recommendation; God grants success. Of course, the Quran tells us that whoever strives, God helps them: "We provide for all"; that is, God's help is not only for the believers; even the Almighty God helps those who work for the world when they strive, because of their efforts. "We provide for all these and those"; however, special divine assistance is for the believers and for those who have a connection with God. Your hearts are pure hearts, you are young, your hearts are pure; your connection with the Almighty God and your reliance on the Almighty God and your seeking help from the Almighty God will help you to progress better, to overcome problems more easily, and to face problems with more hope and move forward; this is also a very important point. And this heartfelt connection with God that I always recommend to the youth and to you: first and foremost, avoid sin, familiarize your heart with the Almighty God, pay attention to prayer, pay attention to remembrance; these are our certain recommendations that, God willing, will help you and advance you on this path; and we hope that God grants you success. Yes, I will certainly pray for you and hope that my prayer for you will be answered. You are the children of this country and the light of this country, and God willing, the eyes of the country will be brightened by you.

Regarding the [success of] our volleyball youth and our athletes, which truly makes me happy. Now they said someone is involved in volleyball; no, I have no involvement, I only played volleyball in the alley as a child, that is about it; and in my youth, there was really no opportunity to play, otherwise, we would have loved to. We used to tie a thread in the middle of the alley - we had a real net dream that we could not get - and played volleyball. Volleyball is a very good game; it is truly one of the very good games; now I do not want to mention other games so as not to offend [another sport]; however, volleyball is very good.

Well, thanks be to God, our youth have been able to create honor; and where, in which country! Just as he said, there, of course, the people are very good to us; the people there are your supporters, they love you, and for you, they applaud and send blessings, they do these things; however, their government, well, yes, they are bad. You stood at the peak of world volleyball there; this is a very valuable thing, and the people were happy, and I was happy, and I was happy from the happiness of the people; and I thank you from both sides, I thank you again. God willing, may you be successful. This is one point.

The second point is that this point raised by our dear brother, our dear youth, was also in my mind, and that is the [importance of] having an Iranian head coach; I have always believed this. Once, there was an Iranian head coach for football [who] came to me, and I thanked him for having an Iranian head coach; I truly believe this. Now I do not want to get into these matters, that is, these are executive matters, related to their officials, I do not interfere to say this should be done, that should not be done; however, I truly believe that it is appropriate for our country that in sports, the head coaches of clubs, [officials] of federations, and collections should be Iranian. That is, there is really no need; now some unnecessarily feel a need and want to prove this [but] it does not sit well with me that this is really a necessary thing; no, I am very happy that, thanks be to God, an Iranian head coach and [his colleagues] have been able to bring these youths to this point. God willing, may you be successful and progress.

I will also review the mentioned matters; I will give them to the office to review and see what we should do. [Because] when you mention military service, immediately [the rest] say military service; that is, everyone [says], while really if a group of elites like this go into the military environment, they would create a transformation in our armed forces, that is, the existence of them is very valuable; of course, this does not mean judgment, we do not want to judge.

Today was a very good day for me, your meeting was a very sweet meeting for me, and I hope that God helps [you]. It was also interesting that this honorable medalist lady brought her little child with her, and thanks be to God, it is clear that it is possible to win medals while having a spouse and child; therefore, this work is possible. Some think that these things cannot be done, no, it is not like that, it can be done. God willing, may He grant you all success.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.