Hadi Saei
Hadi Saei Bonehkohal ( born June 10, 1976 in Tehran, persian هادی ساعی بنهکهل ) is an Iranian Taekwondo athlete and participant in the Summer Olympic Games in Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.
After winning the bronze medal in Sydney in 2000 at featherweight Saei 2004 was the first Olympic champion of Iran Taekwondo at the Athens Games. It was the second Olympic gold medal for Iran after the victory Hossein Rezazadehs in weightlifting. In Beijing Hadi Saei went to welterweight and won again the gold medal. He is thus the most successful Iranian athlete in the Olympic Summer Games (2 gold, 1 bronze).
In the weight category up to 72 kilograms, it was in 1999 in Edmonton (Canada) World Champion and defeated in 2003 in Garmisch -Partenkirchen, in a very controversial final battle against Korea and won the silver medal. At the World Championships in Madrid, he could be world champion again in 2005. Furthermore Hadi Saei is four times World Cup winner in Taekwondo. A similarly successful athlete is the American athlete Steven Lopez, the two-time Olympic champion in Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004.
During the World Championships in Madrid, from 13 to 17 April 2005, the multiple world champion Saei was elected to the World Taekwondo Athlete of the Year in 2005 and honored by the World Federation WTF.
When the city of Bam was devastated by the earthquake in his homeland in 2003, Saei auctioned off its entire collection of medals, including his former Olympic bronze to assist with the financial proceeds of the countless victims ( more 10,000 families).
Saei received his education at the Physical Education Faculty in Tehran. In his spare time he is also dedicated to other sports, inter alia, horse riding, tennis and football. He began his Taekwondo training at age seven in Iran, where his father Saeed Mohaimen was his first coach. At the turn of the millennium, he received the national award " National Sportsman of the Year 1999/2000 " of his country.
Hadi Saei in Europe is a popular guest speaker at Taekwondo events. With many years of experience, he is a trainer and consultant to numerous clubs and national associations. Its main objective is to help pass on his knowledge and young athletes on your " way of life " (Do or Tao ).