Niam vs. Valerios - 1996 Olympics

Before "Pocket Hercules" could put a 3rd consecutive gold medal around his neck - he had to battle lift-for-lift with Valerios Leonidis. Lost in all of the amazing feats of Niam was Valerios - who C&J'ed 187.5kg and nearly cleaned 190kg! But history often forgets second place.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Olympic
• Weightlifting

[Realite58]

Naim Suleymanoglu The best of all times.

[BledaTurk]

All Bulgar's origin Turk. ACTUALLY

[baburhannn]

His name is Naim not Niam. Please change the title...

[ChildsPlay2008]

@caskurlu Re-read what I wrote and define "greatest". Is it the most weight lifted relative to BW? If so, Naim wins hands down. What about the most world championships? Most Olympic medals? Sets the most world records? Lifts the most weight? If any one of those is the answer, Naim is not the greatest. I'm not denigrating his lifting at all. He is without question ONE OF the greatest lifters of all time but he is NOT the most ACCOMPLISHED lifter of all time. "Greatness" has many definitions, sir.

[Keenanhomeservices]

@ChildsPlay2008 but which one of them lifted 3X of his own weight? no one. thats why Naim is officially best!

[reccae]

108 turk and 4 greek :)

[sayitm30]

forget the greecs turkey are always the best ....in the war....ha ha ha ha ha we kill the pimp motherfuckers...ha ha ha

[caskurlu]

@ChildsPlay2008 Have you heard of something called Sinlair points? The Sinclair Coefficients are a means to compare different weight classes in olympic weightlifting. Naim Suleymanoglu lifted 152.5kg in snatch, 190kg in jerk and 342.5kg in total for the class of 60kg. This amounts to 505 Sinclair points, i.e., equivalent of lifting 505kg in total for the category of +105kg, which is the best ever performance in world history and will always be.

He is the greatest, period!

[Troywb2]

What does Naim always sniff/inhale/whatever before a lift?

[britvroman]

What a legend!

[skirts365]

@cypresspeter2008 Turk was 59 inches Greek 64" I believe 64 kilo class = 141lbs do the math the Greek beat the Turk on height to weight ratio and came close to absolute win. Turk official winner Greek unofficial winner on more actual merit but figuring in height will probably never happen in lifting, only body weight. Cholakov was 6.5" taller than Reza, snatched only 12pounds less, taller man also weighed 17pounds less & had to pull weight over greater distance did not seem a limit lift.

[skirts365]

@Realite58 Modern times does not cover times long past while there was no great science of lifting and training till modern days, we must assume there were some exceptional specimens. Like Thomas Topham, who might have been able to clean and jerk 4x bodyweight. It would have been before his knees were damaged by accident holding back a team of horses, not the pull, but the crash against other object. Undocumentable feats must be regarded as possibly fictitious but somethings are known of TT.