Naim Suleymanoglu: Pocket Hercules

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Standing just 4 feet 11 inches (1.5 metres) tall and weighing less than 141 pounds (64 kg), Naim Suleymanoglu was hardly imposing enough to stir thoughts of Hercules. Yet that was the Turkish weightlifter’s nickname—“Pocket Hercules,” to be exact—and he backed up the moniker no better than at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, in a head-to-head duel with Greece’s Valerios Leonidis. The two rivals dominated the competition, pushing each other further and further. Before they finished, three new world records were set, and, for the third time in as many Olympiads, Suleymanoglu stood atop the podium. The Bulgarian-born Suleymanoglu, ...(100 of 445 words)