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"Pocket Hercules" againstÉ Leonidis
In February of 1997 two athletes, the famous Turkish weightlifter Naim Suleymanoglu (known as the "pocket Hercules") and the Greek Valerios Leonidis, were awarded in Constantinople the prize of "Greek-Turkish friendship", which is awarded in the memory of the Turkish journalist and partisan of the Greek-Turkish approach, Ibrahim Ipekci, who was murdered in 1979 due to his political action. This prize was the result of the attitude of the two athletes in Atlanta during the thrilling confrontation between them as well as during the awards. Exactly a year earlier, namely almost six months before the Olympics, the two countries were on the brink of warfare, which was averted to a large extent by the "protective" intervention of the United States.
Naim Suleymanoglu was born in 1967 in the mountainous region Ptichar in Bulgaria, where live closely united groups of Turkish origin. Being part of the minority, at a time when nationalistic conflicts were escalating in the Balkans, Suleymanoglu spent his childhood named Suleimanov by the Bulgarian authorities, so that his national descent would not be obvious. In 1986, at the age of 19, he fled to Turkey, where he was received as a national hero. He was already a renowned weightlifter, who at the age of fifteen, in 1983, set his first world record.
In 1984 he became the second weightlifter in the history of the sport to lift a weight three times his own weight. However, Bulgaria's abstinence from the Los Angeles Olympics deprived him of his first gold Olympic medal. Only a few days after the Games he lifter 30 kilos more than the Los Angeles Olympic winner. Therefore, his first participation in the Olympics was in 1988, this time with the team of Turkey. He won the gold medal setting a new world record and lifting a heavier weight than the winner of the next category. For more than eight years he was undefeatable in all organizations. He had his first defeat in the European championship of 1992. Nevertheless, after a few months in Barcelona he won his second gold medal.
His first big confrontation with Leonidis was in the world championship of 1995, where he pursued a defensive tactic and won due to his lighter body weight compared with his opponent, having lifted on the whole the same kilos. The following year in the Atlanta Olympics Leonidis was lighter. So, for Suleymanoglu to win the third gold medal, he had to lift a heavier weight than the Greek athlete, which he eventually did, during what could be described as the most exciting game in the history of the Olympics. In the presence of the IOC president and many Greek and Turkish spectators the two athletes vied for the gold medal, breaking the world record three times in the two last efforts. Finally the winner was Suleymanoglu, who thus became the first weightlifter in the history of the Olympics to win the gold medal three times in a row.
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