ANKARA, TURKEY
Thursday marks the 4th anniversary of the death of Turkish weightlifting legend Naim Suleymanoglu.
Nicknamed “Pocket Hercules” for his 1.47 meters (4 feet 10 inches) frame, Suleymanoglu went down in weightlifting history, bagging gold medals in three consecutive Olympic games: Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996.
Suleymanoglu became the first weightlifter to win gold medals at three different Olympics.
Born with Turkish roots in the southern Bulgarian province of Kardzhali in 1967, Suleymanoglu set a lifting record of 190 kilograms (419 pounds) in the clean and jerk in the 1988 Olympics.
Although Suleymanoglu set his first world record when he was 16, he could not enter the 1984 Olympics since Bulgaria joined the Soviet boycott of the Los Angeles games.
He was picked as the world’s best weightlifter in 1984, 1985 and 1986, while he was competing for Bulgaria.
Escape from Bulgarian communist regime to Turkey
In 1986, he took shelter in the Turkish Embassy in Australia after the Weightlifting World Cup in Melbourne, seeking to escape pressures in Bulgaria.
The 1980s witnessed Bulgarian oppression against the country’s Turkish minority, forcing them to adopt Slavic names and prohibiting their language, with Suleymanoglu defected to Turkey in protest.
The Communist regime in Bulgaria forced Turks to run away to the neighboring Turkey.
It was in this period that the Bulgarian government changed Suleymanoglu’s name — without his consent — to Naum Shalamanov.
Suleymanoglu was airlifted to Turkey’s capital Ankara from Australia by Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Ozal in a secret operation.
Once the World Cup in Melbourne ended, Suleymanoglu risked his life but managed to escape from the Bulgarian camp with the help of the Turkish government.
He took a Turkish jet to fly to London first, and then to Ankara.
Turkish government paid Bulgaria $1 million to have Suleymanoglu compete for Turkey in the 1988 Olympics, as Bulgaria allowed him to represent Turkey in international competitions.
Featuring on Time cover page
Suleymanoglu was featured on the cover of the world-renowned Time magazine on Jan. 3, 1988 issue over his successful performance in the Seoul Games.
He died of liver failure at the age of 50 on Nov. 18, 2017.
Suleymanoglu’s story in film
The life of Suleymanoglu was filmed which was released on Nov. 22, 2019.
A Turkish-Dutch actor, Hayat Van Eck, 20 portrayed Suleymanoglu in a drama movie titled “Cep Herkülü (Pocket Hercules): Naim Süleymanoğlu”
