This is the guy.
Short arms are a big advantage in several weightlifting events.
Posted on 08/25/2004 8:52:54 PM PDT by freedom44
ATHENS (Reuters) - There are hundreds of gold medals on offer at the Athens Olympics but only three mythical titles.
The 100 metres proclaims "the world's fastest man" and the decathlon the "world's greatest athlete".
But the title that may fascinate more than any other is "the world's strongest man", to be bestowed in the super-heavyweight competition before a sold-out crowd on Wednesday.
Iranian Hercules, Hossein Rezazadeh, a human crane able to hoist refrigerators with the same ease mere mortals can lift a briefcase, is the defending champion.
A burly 160 kg (353 lbs) bundled into a 6-ft 1-in (1.85m) frame, Rezazadeh is literally Olympic weightlifting's biggest attraction.
The devout Muslim, who whispers a prayer before each lift, looks set to increase his world records towards the 500-kg mark in two lifts but may wait until Beijing in 2008 to attempt this mythical weight.
"He is our superstar, he is a great weightlifter and great man," gushed International Weightlifting Federation president Tamas Ajan, when asked what the hulking Iranian meant to his sport, which has once again been buffeted by doping scandals at the Athens Games.
While the IWF hopes to use the hugely popular Rezazadeh to polish the sport's drug stained image around the world, the Iranian is in no need of promotion at home where he is a hero.
An athlete who had a branch of the Iran state bank named after him for winning gold in Sydney, Rezazadeh cares little about money, reportedly rejecting a $20,000 (11, 076 pound) a month offer to take up Greek citizenship and lift for the Olympic hosts.
Turkey, never shy about offering up cash for lifters, was also reportedly in the bidding making a $10 million pitch.
But being a champion in Iran is not without its rewards, Iran president Mohammad Khatami awarding Rezazadeh 600 million rial to buy a house in the capital Teheran.
At the 1998 junior world championships there was little to suggest Rezazadeh would one day dominate the sport after finishing sixth in the snatch and failing to make a lift in the clean and jerk.
But two years later at the Sydney Olympics, he took the sport in his vice-like grip ripping the gold from Russia's Andrei Chemerkin.
Since then the Iranian has stamped his authority on the weightlifting world, placing his name beside every super-heavyweight world record and adding a pair of world championship titles to his resume.
"My rivals have confessed that they just think of the silver medal," Rezazadeh noted in a recent newspaper interview.
OK, no Clean and Jerk jokes please.
This is the guy.
Short arms are a big advantage in several weightlifting events.
ping
Good God - it looks like someone sewed a pair of legs to his shoulders.
Actually he shouts a prayer to Allah about three times during his lift routine. There is certainly no "whisper" involved.
"Hossein Reza Zadeh from Iran set two new world records at +105 kg. Weightlifting category and won the gold medal. The 26-year old athlete, called also "Iranian Hercules", lifted 263,5kg in Clean & Jerk and 473.5kg in total, breaking his own previous records (263kg and 472,5kg respectively). Before the Olympic Games, the gold medallist in Sydney had stated that he wanted another gold medal in Athens, an ambition that he finally achieved."
http://www.athens2004.com/
He won the Gold Medal!
He doesn't support the reigning Mullahs, he's made that known before.
PUFFY
That may give him self-confidence to lift!
He is ROSTAM of Iran...
We could all chip in and buy him a neck.
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