Hall of fame
Naim Suleymanoglu
Born: Jan 23, 1967
Birthplace: Ptichar, Bulgaria
Nationality: Turkish
Olympic medals:
1988 Seoul Games, featherweight, gold
1992 Barcelona Games, featherweight, gold
1996 Atlanta Games, featherweight, gold
World Championships
7 gold medals in 1985,1986,1989,1991,1993,1994 and 1995; 1 silver medal in 1983
The Pocket Hercules
Naim Suleymanoglu was born to Turkish parents living in Bulgaria. Only 1.47m tall, he quickly attracted attention for his weightlifting ability. He set his first adult world record when he was only 15 years old.
In 1984, at the age of 16, he became the second lifter to clean and jerk three times his bodyweight. Bulgaria boycotted that year's Olympic Games, but a few weeks later, Sleymanoglu lifted 30kg more than the Olympic winner in his weight category.
In 1986, Suleymanoglu defected to Turkey and represented that country at the 1988 Olympics. Competing in the featherweight division, he broke the world record in both the snatch and the jerk, and won the gold medal by 30kg.
In fact, his combined total was greater than that of the winner of the lightweight division. Suleymanoglu was undefeated for many years, but at the 1992 European Championships he was beaten by Nikolay Peshalov of Bulgaria.
Three months later, at the Barcelona Olympics, Suleymanoglu turned the tables and beat Peshalov by 15 kg. Four years later, at the Atlanta Olympics, Suleymanoglu engaged in a tremendous duel with Valerios Leonidis of Greece and finally earned his third gold medal by breaking his own world record. Suleymanoglu tried to win a fourth gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, but he missed three times while trying to snatch 145kg and was eliminated.
Yoshinobu Miyake
Born: Nov 24. 1939
Birthplace: Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
Nationality: Japanese
Olympic medals:
1964 Tokyo Games, featherweight, gold
1968 Mexico City Games, featherweight, gold
1960 Rome Games, bantamweight, silver
World Championships
6 gold medals in 1962 -1966 and 1968; 1 bronze medal in 1961
The Swinging 60s
Yoshinobu Miyake was Japan's greatest weightlifter and is considered one of the strongest men ever, pound-for-pound.
He finished second in the 1960 Olympic bantamweight class and then won gold medals at the 1964 and 1968 Olympics as a featherweight.
He participated again in the Munich Games 1972, finishing 4th in the featherweight class. He also won world championships in 1962, 1963, and 1965-66. Miyake set 25 world records, including 10 consecutive records in the snatch and nine consecutive overall records in the 60kg class.
Miyake later became Japan's national weightlifting coach. His brother, Yoshiyuki, took the bronze medal in the 1968 Olympic featherweight class and won the world championships in 1969 and 1971.
Pyrros Dimas
Born: Oct 13, 1971
Birthplace: Himara, Albania
Nationality: Greek
Highlights:
Olympic medals
1992 Barcelona Games, 82.5kg, gold
1996 Atlanta Games, 83kg, gold
2000 Sydney Games, 85kg, gold
2004 Athens Games, 85kg, bronze
Greek Lion of Himara
Dimas was born in Himara, Albania, to ethnic Greek parents, and emigrated to Greece in 1991. He first competed for Greece at the 1992 Barcelona Games and took the gold medal in the 82.5kg class. His birthplace gave rise to his nickname "The Greek Lion of Himara". His outstanding number of Olympic gold medals created another nickname: "Midas."
At the 1996 Atlanta Games, with the 1993 and 1995 world titles under his belt, Dimas was heavily favored for the 83kg class, where he was the flag bearer of the Greek Olympic team. He won the event with two new world records.
At the 2000 Sydney Games, he won yet another gold medal, this time in the 85kg class. This made him one of just three weightlifters at that time to have won three Olympic gold medals besides Naim Suleymanoglu of Turkey and Kakhi Kakhiashvili of Greece.
Four years later, on home soil, Dimas was not expected to compete as he was recovering from knee surgery and a hurt wrist, but he came away with a bronze medal in the 85 kg class, becoming only the fourth weightlifter in history to win a medal at four different Olympic Games.
Source: IOC
