Hossein Reza Zadeh

From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.

Hossein Reza Zadeh (born May 12, 1978) is an Iranian weightlifter and the strongest man in the world. He was born in Ardabil, Iran, the third of seven children. At the age of 15, he took up weightlifting after being encouraged by his gym teacher.

Nicknamed "The Iranian Hercules," he is the current record holder in weightlifting, holding the world records in his class in the snatch, clean and jerk and total. He is the first Iranian athlete to have won two Olympic gold medals. He is also one of Iran's most noted celebrities, frequently appearing on television and in the news; his wedding in February of 2003 was broadcast live on television in Iran.

In 2002 he was voted the "Champion of Champions" of Iran and was one of 16 Iranian athletes granted a badge of courage from Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. As a reward for setting a world record at the 2003 World Weightlifting Championships in Vancouver, Canada, Mohammad Khatami awarded him 600 million rials to buy a house in Tehran. Both Turkey and Greece have offered him substantial sums of money to switch nations, but he turned down their offers.

He surprised many at the 2000 Summer Olympics, earning a gold medal and breaking the decades-old monopoly on the gold by the Soviet Union and then Russia; his gold medal was the first time since 1960 that a Soviet or Russian athlete did not win in the over 105 kg class at a non boycotted Games. He has since broken his own record on a number of occasions leading up to his world record 263.5 kg lift in the clean and jerk at the 2004 Summer Olympics. His total at the 2004 Summer Olympics was 472.5 kg, 17.5 kg more than silver medalist Viktors Scerbatihs.