Lifting 214 kilos, Behdad Salimi bested Rezazadeh by one kilo in the snatch during Iran’s national championships Friday. Rezazadeh set the snatch world record of 212.5 kilos at the 2000 Olympics, then bested his own record with a snatch of 213 kilos at the 2003 Asian competition.
Rezazadeh retired in 2007, then became coach of the Iranian team and just last week took over 
as president of the Iranian Weightlifting Federation.
Weightlifting recognizes three records in each weight category—one for the snatch, one for the clean & jerk and one for the total of those two.
Rezazadeh still holds the clean & jerk record. He set the record of 263 kilos at the 2002 World Championships. That still stands.
On total lift, Rezazadeh set the record of 472 kilos at the 2000 Olympics and that still stands 11 years later.
The table below shows Rezazadeh’s records alongside last year’s gold medal lifts at the annual World Weightlifting Championships:
Category Reza. 2010
Snatch 213 210 Russian C&J 263 246 German
Total 472 453 Salimi
The gap between Reza-zadeh’s record total and last year’s winning total was 19 kilos or 42 pounds, no small gap!
Over the years, others have been able to approach his record in the snatch, but his clean & jerk and total records still look unassailable.
The snatch and the clean & jerk are two methods for lifting a weight over one’s head. The snatch is a single motion taking the weight from the floor to above the head. The clean & jerk is a two-stage operation in which the weight is first lifted from the floor to shoulder-height and then, in a second effort, moved above the head on extended arms.
