August 19, 2016
Iran has pulled down two gold medals so far in weightlifting at the Rio Olympics, but managed only a single bronze thus far in Greco-Roman wrestling, which is not proving to be a gold mine for Iranian grapplers, at least not yet.
An Iranian, Mojtaba Abedini, won a surprising spot in the bronze medal round of saber fencing, but lost and ended up in fourth place—still far better than anyone had anticipated in a sport little noticed in Iran.
However, two big names crashed out. Ehsan Haddadi won the silver meal in the discus throw in the 2012 Olympics and was looking to do better this year. But he ended up in 24th place, not even in sight of a medal. However, he still remains the sole Iranian ever to win a medal in any track and field event.
Haddadi not only a bad day on the field in this Olympics; when he arrived back at his room in the Olympic Village, he discovered that someone had stolen all his cash from the room.
Hamid Soryan, who has been a frequent medal winner in the lightest weight division of Greco-Roman wrestling, including the gold medal in the Olympics four years ago, ended up in 11th place this year. Soryan had struggled to win a slot in the Olympics, only making it in on his last opportunity. He faced two opponents in Rio—a Japanese and a Kazakh—and lost to both.
The honors thus far have gone to two weightlifters. Kianoush Rostami won Iran’s first gold meal of the 2016 Olympics in the 85-kilo division of men’s weightlifting. Not only did he win the gold, but he also set a new world record—breaking the old record that was held by… Kianoush Rostami! Rostami lifted 179 kilos in the snatch and 217 in the clean & jerk for the new world record of 396 kilos, beating his previous world record by one kilo.
The next day, Sohrab Moradi pulled down Iran’s second gold, topping the field in the men’s 95-kilo division of weightlifting. That was two golds in two days. Before this year, Iranian lifters had only managed five golds over the decades. Moradi didn’t break the world record, but he had an easy win, lifting 403 kilos—eight kilograms more than the silver medal winner, an unusual margin. But the field was depleted this year by a number of suspensions for doping.
In volleyball, the only team sport for which Iran qualified in the Olympics, Iran overcame early losses and advanced to the semifinals. But Iran had the lowest ranking of the eight teams that advanced so its prospects did not look good.
Twelve volleyball teams made it to the Olympics. They were divided into two pools of six teams each with the top four teams in each group advancing. Iran placed fourth in its pool with victories over Cuba and Egypt, but losses to Argentina, Poland and Russia.
Many athletes struggled in their events and will go home with memories rather than medals.
Zahra Nemati came in only 49th of 64 in the ranking of women’s individual archery. Nemati was once a black belt in taekwondo. But an auto accident confined her to a wheelchair. She then took up archery. She is one of the few athletes from any country who qualified for both the Olympics and the Paralympics, which will be played in Rio after the Olympics end. Nemati was also the flag carrier for the Iranian team at the opening ceremony for the games—the first time Iran has chosen a woman to bear the flag.
In rowing, Mahsa Javar competed in women’s single sculls. With 32 women competing and 18 advancing, Mahsa came in 21st in the qualifying round, just three slots below the cutoff. All those who didn’t make the cut, however, were eligible for the repechage round, where the top six of the 14 would advance. She looked likely to make the cut. But she failed, and, after two more successive rounds, ended up slipping backward until she was ranked just 28th overall among the 32.
Others didn’t do that well. Mohammad Arzandeh didn’t make a very long jump in the long jump and ended up ranked 29th of 30 athletes.