The beauty of fitness in general and strength training in specific is that because the ultimate goal is self-improvement, anyone can pick up a set of Olympic bumper plates and start lifting to build their body and technique to reach their full potential.

This is something that is particularly beautiful about competition weightlifting; whilst it is a competition, you are not directly competing with any other person but instead are competing against your limits.

There have been a lot of incredible athletes who have proven this point, from Emily Campbell’s astonishing feats at the Tokyo and Paris Olympic Games, to Paul Anderson’s almost-mythical lifts which have never come close to being replicated.

However, if there is one athlete that proves that anyone and any body can become extraordinary if they are willing to put the work in, the life and lifts of Naim Suleymanoglu prove that weightlifting is for everyone.

Powerful At Any Size

Born in Bulgaria in 1967, Mr Suleymanoglu stood at four feet, ten inches tall (147cm) and had a competition weight of 62kg, but from the age of ten took to weightlifting. By age 15 he had set a world record and was at age 17 seen as the overwhelming favourite to win a gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympic Games.

He only did not due to circumstances that would ultimately work in his favour; following a boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, the Soviet Eastern Bloc subsequently boycotted the Los Angeles Games.

Whilst this situation is most famous for leading to one of the most expensive marketing disasters of all time for McDonalds as they gave away millions of pounds worth of ironically deeply unhealthy fast food due to athletic triumph, it also stopped Mr Suleymanoglu from participating for Bulgaria.

Had he done so, it is not clear whether he would have been able to change his country of representation, which he did after fleeing Bulgaria and becoming a Turkish citizen in 1986. 

This would deny him from officially achieving a feat that has not been matched in weightlifting since.

Pocket Hercules

Finally able to compete for Turkiye in the 1988 Olympic Games, Mr Suleymanoglu would have the pound-for-pound best performance by any competitive weightlifter, matching the world record in his first snatch lift and breaking it twice with his remaining lifts.

He would be even more dominant in the clean and jerk section, with all three of his lifts setting world records, and his final 190 kg lift setting an as-yet unbroken record for the highest ratio lift ever, managing to lift 3.15 times his body weight.

So dominant was his performance that his total lifted weight could have won the next weight class up.

This granted him the nickname Pocket Hercules and immediately garnered him international attention. He retired after winning the 1989 world championship but quickly returned for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, winning there and in Atlanta in 1996.

The latter contest would later go down in history.

Greatest Competition Of All Time?

Possibly the biggest highlight of Mr Suleymanoglu’s career, and the one that showcased the best side of competition weightlifting was in Atlanta in 1996.

Whilst weightlifting is not explicitly a competitive sport, the event was characterised by the rivalry between Mr Suleymanoglu and Valerios Leonidis of Greece, considered to be the best weightlifter in the 64 kg weight class not named Naim Suleymanoglu. 

He only lost in the 1995 world championships because of the tiebreaker where the weightlifter who weighs the least wins.

Both traded world record lifts throughout the contest, and it was only decided by 2.5 kg after Mr Leonidis failed in his 190 kg lift in what was described at the time and in the decades since as the greatest weightlifting competition ever held. 

After the event but before the medal ceremony, the pair embraced, and after Mr Leonidis said that Naim was the best weightlifter ever after achieving a then-unheard of feat of winning three gold medals in a row, his response was simply to say “Valerios, we are both the best.”

Spirit Of Excellence

What made the man known as Pocket Hercules so special was highlighting the importance of hard work and pursuing excellence.

His attempt to win four gold medals was unfortunately thwarted in 2000, the same event that Pyrros Dimas tied his record for three consecutive gold medals, following three failed attempts at a 145 kg snatch.

In some ways it shows a platonic ideal for weightlifting as a contest against your own limits; all of us are capable of far more than we think we are, and the simplest way to prove it is to start lifting.