Weightlifting: A Perennial Favorite Sport in Iran

Besides being an international sport, weightlifting is a training technique for athletes in other sports. Long popular as a competitive sport in Egypt, Turkey, and Japan, weightlifting became increasingly popular in Iran after 1930. Centuries before Islam, Persian athletes fused spirituality and strength training in a practice called Varzesh-e-Bastani, the legacy of which may still persist. The sport of Weightlifting consist of four age group divisions, fifteen weight classes and two lifts. Both lifts, the snatch and the clean and jerk, involve taking a barbell from the ground and lifting it overhead. The weight of each competitor’s best snatch and best clean & jerk are added together for a total, and the person with the highest total in his or her weight class wins. Hossein Rezazadeh, a two-time Olympic champion, four-time World Weightlifting champion, and five-time Asian champion, is widely regarded as one of the greatest weightlifters of all time. Since old times in Iran, lifting athletes in every city were known as chivalrous and heroic figures. A shining example of this matter is Kianoush Rostami, who has put his gold medal up for auction to raise money for the victims of 12^th November earthquake in which left at least 500 people dead in Iran and Iraq.

Kianoosh Rostami one of the greatest weightlifters of all time.