Hossein Reza Zadeh

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Weightlifting
Olympic medal record
Gold	Sydney 2000	+ 105 kg
Gold	Athens 2004	+ 105 kg

Medal record
Asian Games
Bronze	Bangkok 1998	+ 105 kg
Gold	Busan 2002	+ 105 kg
Gold	Doha 2006	+ 105 kg

Hossein Reza Zadeh (Persian: حسین رضازاده , born May 12, 1978 in Ardabil, Iran) is an Iranian weightlifter and the current world record holder in the sport. He is the third of seven children and at the age of 15, he took up weightlifting after being encouraged by his gym teacher.

Nicknamed "The Iranian Hercules," he currently holds the world records in weightlifting's super heavyweight 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, which was held in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca, 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 (a little more than 60,000 USD) to buy a house in Tehran. After his spectacular performance, he was offered by Turkey’s Weightlifting Federation a stipend of US$20,000 a month, as well as a luxury villa and US$10 million reward if he switches nationalities and wins gold for Turkey at the 2004 Athens Olympics, but he turned down their offers. Rezazadeh rejected the tempting offer saying, "I am an Iranian and love my country and people."^[1]

He surprised many at the 2000 Summer Olympics, earning a gold medal and breaking the decades-old monopoly on the gold by the Soviet Union and then Russia. His gold medal was the first since 1960 by a non-Soviet or non-Russian athlete in the over 105 kg class at a non boycotted Games. He has since broken his own records on a number of occasions leading up to his world record 263.5 kg (580.9 pounds) lift in the clean and jerk at the 2004 Summer Olympics. His total (both lifts combined) at the 2004 Summer Olympics of 472.5 kg was 17.5 kg more than silver medalist Viktors Scerbatihs. He is the current IWF World Weightlifter of the Year, and was shortlisted for weightlifter of the century.

Reza Zadeh's supremacy in the superheavyweight class has been virtually unchallenged in recent years. However, although he has not been pushed hard by his competition, he is still in pursuit of the all-time best IWF marks of 216 kg snatch (Antonio Krastev, 1987), 266 kg clean and jerk (Leonid Taranenko, 1988), and 475 kg total (Taranenko, 1988). Even though they exceed Reza Zadeh's marks, these lifts are no longer the official world records due to the IWF's restructuring of weight classes.

Reza Zadeh is also referred to by weightlifting commentators as "the strongest man in the world", primarily due to his world records in the olympics.