Not quite five feet, Naim Suleymanoglu, nicknamed the Pocket Hercules, won three gold medals in as many Olympics. Son of a Turkish miner in Bulgaria, Naim set a world record when he was just 15 and, a year later, became only the second lifter to clean and jerk three times his bodyweight. Weeks after the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, which Bulgaria boycotted, he lifted 30kgs more than the Olympic winner in his weight category.
During the 1986 World Cup in Melbourne, he defected to Turkey, stowed away in the prime minister’s personal plane. To set aside the Olympic rule that barred a sportsperson from competing for his adopted country for three years after changing nationality, Turkey paid Bulgaria $1million! Thus Suleymanoglu was able to represent Turkey at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Suleymanoglu won the first weightlifting gold for his adopted country with a lift of 342.5kg in the featherweight division. The effort was a staggering 30kg more than his nearest rival. In fact, it even eclipsed the lightweight category winner’s mark.
Beaten by Bulgaria’s Nikolay Peshalov at the 1992 European Championships, the Turk exacted sweet revenge three months later at the Barcelona Olympics. He not only successfully defended his title, but quashed Peshalov by a 15kg margin.
At the Atlanta Games, Suleymanoglu got the better of Greece’s Valerios Leonidis in a fabulous face-off, with the Turk rewriting his own record for a golden treble.
After announcing his retirement, Suleymanoglu returned to the sport in 1999. At the Sydney Games, he tried to snatch 145kg thrice, but failed and was eliminated.
In 2001, Suleymanoglu was awarded the Olympic Order by Juan Antonio Samaranch, the then president of the International Olympic Committee.
A. Joseph Antony
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