Naim Süleymanoğlu

Naim Süleymanoğlu ( Bulgarian Наим Сюлейманогу; 1967 in Ptichar, Bulgaria * 23 January ) born Naum Sulejmanow ( Bulg Наум Сулейманов ) is a former Bulgarian Turkish weightlifters.

Süleymanoğlu was born as a member of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria under the name Naum Suleimanov. He began very early with the weight lifting and scored his first world record in 1983. In the same year Süleymanoğlu was 15 years and 123 days, the youngest world champion weightlifter of all time when he won the gold medal in the bantamweight in the sub-discipline tearing. In addition, it was possible the exceptional athletes as second jack according to the Bulgarian Stefan Topurow to push three times the own body weight. This fact, in conjunction with its small body size earned him the nickname " Pocket Hercules" (Turkish: " Cep Herkülü " ) a, by which he is known in the weightlifting scene today.

In the course of Bulgarisierungskampagne in his home country Sulejmanow had to change its name on the instructions of the authorities in Schalamanow ( bugl. Наум Шаламанов ). Under this name he started in 1986 at the World Championships in Sofia, where he now his title number five to seven won. After the World Cup itself Suleimanow sat during a trip to Australia to Turkey, took to the Turkish citizenship and changed its name to Naim Süleymanoğlu. In the following period the Bulgarian state tried to ban his international appearances, but could agree on payment of a large sum of money with Turkey.

For Turkey Süleymanoğlu won three Olympic gold medals each in the featherweight: 1988 Seoul, 1992 Barcelona and 1996 in Atlanta. To win After an unsuccessful attempt at the Summer Olympics in Sydney in 2000 as the first weightlifter of all time, the fourth gold medal in a row, he ended his sports career and turned to politics. He was awarded the Olympic Order.

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