News

Former world and Olympic champion Hossein Rezazadeh has been officially introduced as the caretaker of Iran’s Weightlifting Federation.

Rezazadeh, who replaced Bahram Afsharzadeh, will be caretaker until a new president is elected for the federation.

The new appointment comes a few days after Afsharzadeh decided to suspend Iran’s national team, coached by Rezazadeh.

The 2000 and 2004 Olympics champion was appointed as the manager and head coach of Iran’s national weightlifting team a few months after he ended his weightlifting career due to an injury in July 2008.

However, the world and Olympic record holder’s term as the national team’s manager was marred by several doping cases among Iranian weightlifters.

Iran’s anti-doping institution confirmed in June the use of illegal drugs by weightlifters Mohsen Davoudi and Rashid Sharifi. (Davoudi claimed the gold medal in the +94kg category in the Asian Junior Championships and Sharifi won three gold medals in the +105kg Asian Championships.)

Rezazadeh came under more pressure when the Iranian national team had its weakest performance in the 2009 World Championships. 

Darab Riyahi became Vice President and Parviz Jalayer as General Secretary is assisting him.