NAİM SÜLEYMANOĞLU

NAİM SÜLEYMANOĞLU

World-famous athlete Naim Süleymanoğlu, who is considered the best weightlifter of all time, is known as Pocket Hercules because of her small stature but very strong build.

Naim Süleymanoğlu was born on January 23, 1967 in Kırcaali. He passed away on November 18, 2017 in Istanbul. According to many authorities, he is considered the best weightlifter of all time.

He started weightlifting in 1977, when he was nine years old.

At the age of fifteen, he won two gold medals at the World Junior Weightlifting Championships in Brazil and became the champion.

At the age of sixteen, he broke the record and became a champion again. Thus, he became the youngest world record holder in weightlifting history. He has three Olympic Gold medals, seven World Championships and six European Championships throughout his career. He has broken the world record 46 times. In 1984 (at the age of 16), he made history by becoming the second weightlifter to lift three times his body weight in the clean and jerk category.

He started weightlifting at the age of 9 and won 2 gold medals at the World Junior Championships at the age of 15. He won another gold medal at the age of 16, but this time by breaking a record.

He made history in 1984 as the second athlete to lift 3 times his own weight. After the assimilation policy that started in Bulgaria in 1984-85, his name was changed from Naim Süleymanoğlu to Naum Şalamanov. Naim Süleymanoğlu, who made plans to escape to Turkey and regain his identity from that day on, took refuge in the Melbourne Embassy in Australia in 1986.

After Turgut Özal personally intervened, he sought asylum in Turkey.

In order for him to participate in the 1988 Seoul Olympics on behalf of Turkey, the Turkish Government paid 1 million 250 thousand dollars to Bulgaria and obtained the necessary permission. In these Olympics, Süleymanoğlu lifted 145, 150.5 and 152.5 kg in the 60 kg snatch, 175, 188.5 and 190 kg in the clean and jerk, and 320, 339 and 342.5 kg in total, breaking six world and nine Olympic records and achieving a magnificent victory, thus becoming the first athlete to win a gold medal for Turkey in the history of the Olympics outside of wrestling. He made history by lifting 190 kg in the clean and jerk, which was 10 kilograms more than three times his own weight, and by being the only person in the world to achieve this feat. No other weightlifter in the world has yet repeated this feat.

He overcame his opponents in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and won the gold medal very comfortably. In the same year, he was chosen as the “Best Athlete in the World” by the International Weightlifting Press Commission.

He made history by breaking 4 world records in the 64-kg weight class in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and winning a medal for the third time in the Olympics.

After his successes, Naim Süleymanoğlu, who appeared on the cover of Time Magazine and gave a speech at the United Nations, told the world about the oppression of Bulgarian Turks. Bulgaria, which was under great pressure after this post, was forced to open its border gates to Turks who wanted to migrate to Turkey.

After this incident, Naim Süleymanoğlu began to be remembered as the national hero of Bulgarian Turks.