Naim Süleymanoğlu

• Born: January 23, 1967
• Place of Birth: Ptichar, Bulgaria
• Died: November 18, 2017

• Death Place: Istanbul, Turkey

Sport: Weightlifting

Early Life

Naim Süleymanoğlu was born Naim Suleimanov on January 23, 1967, in Ptichar, Bulgaria, a mountain village near the border of Bulgaria and Turkey. Süleymanoğlu’s miner and farmer father was barely 5 feet tall, and his mother stood only 4 feet 7 1/2 inches. It was no surprise that Süleymanoğlu was also of short stature. Despite his size, Süleymanoğlu enjoyed lifting rocks, branches, and other heavy objects. At the age of ten, though he was less than 3 feet 9 inches tall, he impressed the adults at a local weightlifting center with his ability to carry the heavy plates used by the lifters.

The Road to Excellence

Because of his obvious talent, Süleymanoğlu was enrolled in one of Bulgaria’s special sports schools when he was twelve years old to develop his lifting ability. His progress was almost unbelievably rapid. At the age of fourteen, he competed at the World Junior Championships in Brazil, and even though he was competing against lifters who were older, he won the world nineteen-and-under title. Even more incredibly, his performances were within 5 1/2 pounds of the world record for the combined lift. At fifteen, he set his first, but not last, world record.

In the 1984 European Championships, at the age of sixteen, Süleymanoğlu became only the second man in history to lift three times his body weight overhead by hoisting 370 pounds. Though he stood only 5 feet tall and weighed less than 124 pounds, he was soon proclaimed the strongest man, pound-for-pound, in the world. He was given the nickname “Pocket Hercules” by the press. He was an overwhelming favorite to take three gold medals in his weight class in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

The Emerging Champion

Bulgaria joined the Soviet Union in its boycott of the 1984 Olympics in retaliation for the US-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games. Süleymanoğlu’s Olympic plans were put on hold. Moreover, it was not long before Süleymanoğlu decided he no longer wished to represent Bulgaria in international competitions.

Süleymanoğlu’s family was part of a large minority of Bulgarians of Turkish descent living near the Bulgarian-Turkish border. In 1985, the Bulgarian government attempted to “Bulgarize” the Turkish minority, closing the mosques where the ethnic Turks practiced their Islamic faith. The government also required that all Turkish names be changed to Slavic. Many Bulgarian Turks were killed and hundreds arrested in protests of the name-changing campaign. When Süleymanoğlu returned to Bulgaria from a training camp in Australia, he discovered that his name had been changed without his consent. The Bulgarian government had ordered him to use the name Naum Shalamanov.

The name change angered Süleymanoğlu, and though he continued to compete for the Bulgarian team and even set records under his new name, secretly, he had decided to defect from Bulgaria at the first opportunity. At the World Cup competition in Melbourne, Australia, in December 1986, Süleymanoğlu got his chance. Although the Bulgarian team had reportedly grown suspicious of him and assigned security guards to watch him at the competition’s closing banquet, he managed to excuse himself, ostensibly to visit the men’s room. Instead, he met another Bulgarian defector, and the two drove away into hiding.

At first, the president of the Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation claimed that Turkish terrorists had kidnapped Süleymanoğlu. Süleymanoğlu assured police that he had left the team on his own, and he asked the Turkish government to grant him political asylum. He announced, too, that he was changing his name again—to its Turkish variation, Naim Süleymanoğlu, which in Turkish means “Naim, the son of Suleyman.”

Süleymanoğlu’s request for Turkish asylum was granted almost immediately. He flew to London, where the private jet of Turkey’s prime minister, Turgat Ozal, picked him up and flew him to a hero’s welcome in Ankara, Turkey. He kissed the airport runway when he got off the plane in his new country.

The Turkish Weightlifting Federation supplied Süleymanoğlu with his apartment and automobile and began paying him a monthly salary of $1,000, about three times as much as the average Turk made. Süleymanoğlu, though, could not repay his adopted country for its generosity immediately. Under the rules of the International Weightlifting Federation, his citizenship change required him to wait twelve months before he was eligible to represent his new country in international competition.

When Süleymanoğlu did return to competition after a sixteen-month layoff, he did so in dramatic fashion. At the 1988 European Championships in Cardiff, Wales, he began the competition by setting a world record in the snatch, hoisting 150 kilograms—more than 330 pounds—over his head. In the process, he became the first man in history to snatch two and one-half times his body weight. Süleymanoğlu took the meet’s gold medals for his weight class in the snatch, the clean and jerk, and the combined lift. More impressive still, his combined lift total was more than 5 pounds higher than the total of the winning lifter in the next-higher weight division. His popularity in Turkey was so great that the entire meet was shown on Turkish television.

Continuing the Story

Süleymanoğlu’s domination of the European Championships made him a clear favorite for the Olympic Games. At the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, he had to compete against his former Bulgarian teammates, who claimed they would erase all his marks from the record books within a few years.

Süleymanoğlu responded in typical style, setting new world records in every event and sweeping the Olympic gold medals for his weight class. His combined lift total of 755 pounds was more than 60 pounds higher than the total lifted by the silver medalist, Stefan Topurov, a former teammate from the Bulgarian squad. Süleymanoğlu was Turkey’s first gold medalist in twenty years, and he credited the people of his new country for his Olympic triumph. “I owe my success to the fifty-six million Turkish people who support me and love me,” he said. “My strength comes from them.” He returned to a hero’s welcome in Turkey, where he was treated like a movie star.

In the 1992 Olympics, Süleymanoğlu won the gold medal again for the 60-kilogram (132-pound) division, lifting a combined total of 705 pounds. In 1996, he moved up to the 64-kilogram (141-pound) division and won his third gold medal, with a world-record combined-lift total of 738.5 pounds. With his third Olympic gold medal and widely considered one of the greatest weightlifting champions of all time, Süleymanoğlu retired.

Prior to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Süleymanoğlu announced that he would try for an unprecedented fourth gold medal. With just six months to prepare, he easily qualified. His performance at the Games, however, was disappointing. He missed on all three of his lifts and saw his record of three gold medals tied by Pyrros Dimas and Akakios Kakiasvilis of Greece. After the Olympics, Süleymanoğlu entered politics but was unsuccessful in each of his attempts for political office. He also remained involved with the weightlifting federation in Turkey.

Süleymanoğlu died in Istanbul, Turkey, due to complications caused by cirrhosis on November 18, 2017, at the age of fifty.

In 2019, a movie was produced about Süleymanoğlu, his life circumstances, and his athletic feats. The biographical drama was entitled "Pocket Hercules: Naim Suleymanoglu" and starred Dutch actor Hayat Van Eck. The movie begins with a focus on the persecution of Bulgarian Turks by the repressive Bulgarian Communist Party. It later tracks Süleymanoğlu's early career until his triumph at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

Summary

Naim Süleymanoğlu overcame both opposing weightlifters and a hostile government on his way to his record-breaking Olympic victories. Under any name, he proved to be a champion. His seven world titles, six European championship medals, and three Olympic gold medals rank him among the twentieth century’s greatest athletes.

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Bibliography

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