Who is your greatest Olympic Athlete of all time?

[Pierre-Henri]

Dominique Dawes in Atlanta. She is not the best, but she is the most cute.

[persiantiger]

Sure if you like cheaters....

I know you only did this to piss me off liz. Jadidi got screwed and you know it.


Anyways my hero in this olympic is The World's Strongest man the holder of 3 World and Olympic Records off course im talking about the one the only persian pahlavan mr. Hossein Rezazadeh who the Greeks call Hercules!

http://www.mehrnews.com/media/image/5989_300_180.jpg

ATHENS, August 11 (MNA) -- World’s +105kg weightlifting champion, Hossein Rezazadeh, is known as Hercules in the ancient Greece.
Hercules is a hero of classical myth, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, who possessed exceptional strength.

Rezazadeh shot to fame at the 2000 Sydney Olympics with a superhuman lift to defeat two legends of the sport on the way to gold and the title of the ‘world’s strongest man.’

He took Olympic gold with a world record total of 472.5kg (212.5kg in the snatch and 260kg in the clean and jerk).

His 260kg lift was one of the heaviest in weightlifting history and proved too much for 1992 gold medalist Weller and 1996 winner Chemerkin who settled for silver and bronze respectively.

Targeting the Olympic title, the Iranian champion is determined to lift over 470kg to win the coveted gold medal of 2004 Athens Olympic Games.


“The lifter, who has eyed the gold has no alternative but to raise more than 470kg,” the Iranian Hercules said.


The 2000 Sydney Olympics gold medalist revealed his craving for the glittering gold of Athens Games, saying he will make every effort to win the title.

Rezazadeh won three gold medals in +105kg category of the 72nd World Weightlifting Championships in Warsaw, Poland, in 2002 as he totally lifted 472.5kg. He set a new world record in clean and jerk by 0.5kg as he lifted 263 kilograms.

He set a new world +105kg snatch record at the 35th Asian Weightlifting Championships, which ended in China on September 14, 2003.

Iran stood top among 13 participating countries with 599 points and the host China and Indonesia finished runner-up and third with 514 and 493 points respectively.

Kazakhstan, Thailand, and North Korea stood fourth to sixth.

Rezazadeh improved the world's +105kg record by 0.5kg as he lifted 213kg in snatch.

With two golds and one bronze, Rezazadeh lifted 457.5kg and +105kg title in the 73rd World Weightlifting Championships in Vancouver, southwest of Canada, on Nov. 22, 2003.

The 24-year-old Rezazadeh failed to improve his own snatch record, 213kg, in his third effort for 213.5kg and bagged bronze with 207.5kg.

He retained the clean and jerk title, keeping 250kg above his head in the first move. The lifter did not succeed in handling 263.5kg -- 0.5kg above his own record -- in his second effort. "


My fav athelete of all time in the olympics have been king Takhti. The wrestler who whipped his opponents in olympics but what made him into a national figure was his acts in the politics. The muhammad ali of iran. He was prisoned cause he refused to do what the leaders told him to do blah blah blah cut the story short he is a hero. Nasiri nia and Movahed who each got many gold medals for Iran in weight lifting and wrestling are among my other favorites. With movahed having won the 2nd most gold medals in wrestling after some russian guy. I think he has won 6 and the russian guy who is a legend in russia has won 9.

MOD NOTE: Tiger, try not to quote entire articles without citation. Either link to it or cite it. Thanks!

ahh what did I tell ya he did it again. Not only he won the gold he broke the world and the olympics records yet again. What a guy!

[XYZ]

It would have to be Zatopek. Others have had great performances but nothing comparable to the way Zatopek changed the sport.

For the women, it's hard to argue with Fanny Blankers-Koen.

[Iranian Monitor]

I don't know who is the greatest Olympic athlete of all time. But I do know that the greatest sportsman in these Olympics is indeed Iran's weightlifting superman Rezazadeh. Dubbed the "strongest man in the world", Rezazadeh repeated his gold medal yesterday. But what he did even before the Olympics, refusing an offer of millions by Turkey to switch citizenship, was even more important: he showed pride still matters more than money. Something not always clear in athletics these days.

To me, he is a true champion in an age where many are fakes. The following article gives a sense of the inspirational story of Hossein Rezazadeh -- the Champion of Champions.

Powerful Bond
Much-loved Iranian super-heavyweight wins second gold after nixing lucrative offer to change citizenship

http://www.newsday.com/sports/ny-spoweight263942828aug26,0,5467003.story