Home > Hossein Reza Zadeh

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 GreeceGreece formally called the Hellenic Republic (in Greek: ) Hellenike Demokratia , is a country in the southeast of Europe on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula. It is bounded on land by Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania have offered him substantial sums of money to switch nations, but he turned down their offers.

He surprised many at the 2000 Summer OlympicsGames of the XXVII Olympiad Nations participating199 Athletes participating10,651(6,582 men, 4,069 women) Events300 in 28 sports Opening ceremonies September 15, 2000 Closing ceremonies October 1, 2000 Officially opened by William Deane Athlete's Oath Rec, earning a gold medal and and breaking the decades-old monopoly on the gold by the Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR ( Russian: ; tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik (SSSR) also called the Soviet Union ( ; tr. Sovetsky Soyuz , was a state in much of the northern region of Eurasia that existed from 1922 until 1 and then RussiaThe Russian Federation ( Russian: , transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija , or Russia (Russian: , transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija , is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. With; his gold medal was the first time since 1960Events January-February January 1 Independence of Cameroon January 9 Aswan High Dam construction begins in Egypt January 11 Chad declares its independence. January 14 Ralph Chubb, the gay poet and printer, dies at Fair Oak Cottage in Hampshire. January 23 that a SovietThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR ( Russian: ; tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik (SSSR) also called the Soviet Union ( ; tr. Sovetsky Soyuz , was a state in much of the northern region of Eurasia that existed from 1922 until 1 or RussianThe term Russian can refer to: The Russian language Someone from Russia or with a Russian ethnic identity, see Russians Something of or pertaining to Russia. 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.