No one yet able to snatch any records from Rezazadeh

just lost one of his three world records—but he lost it to the Iranian who succeeded him as Iran’s premier super heavyweight weightlifter.

The stories are false, however. Rezazadeh continues to hold all three super heavyweight world records in weightlifting.

The Tehran news reports said Behdad Salimi had bested Rezazadeh in the snatch during training camp. Oddly, the news reports did not say how much Salimi had lifted. But the key point is that world records cannot be set in training camps. They can only be set in internationally recognized and controlled events.

Back in March of last year, the Iranian media also claimed Salimi had bested Rezazadeh in the snatch, passing Rezazadeh by one kilo in a national competition. But that was not an event that was internationally recognized. When Salimi later appeared in a recognized international event, he failed even to equal Rezazadeh’s record hoist.

Rezazadeh retired in 2007, then became coach of the Iranian team and last year 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 all three records and has held them all for many years. 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 table below shows Rezazadeh’s records, the year he set them and last year’s winning lifts in the annual World Weightlifting Championships.

Category Reza. Set 2010

Snatch 213 2003 210

C&J 263 2002 246

Total 472 2000 453

A Russian and a German won gold respectively in the snatch and clean & jerk last year. Salimi won the gold for the total lifted. But the gap between Rezazadeh’s record total and Salimi’s winning total last year was 19 kilos or 42 pounds, no small gap!

This year’s world championships will be held November 5-13 in Paris, where Salimi (and others) will have a chance to best Rezazadeh. But only the snatch record seems to be in any doubt.

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.