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Nassiri donates 1972 Munich Silver medal to Olympic Museum

Iran’s hero weightlifter Mohammad Nassiri who won many medals including the Olympic gold medal (Mexico 1968), Silver (Munich 1972) and Bronze (Montreal 1976) and 5 World championships gold medals, has donated his Munich Silver medal to the IOC Olympic Museum. The IOC organized a medal donation ceremony on 24th November in Lausanne.

Actually there is a nice story in behind, thieves have stolen his Olympic medal 30 years ago! And after a long time of searching and looking for it, an Olympic fan found somebody is selling Nassiri’s medal on the Internet for 10,000 USD! So, he contacted the guy and finally after long negotiating he could manage to buy the medal and bring it back to Iran.

After a journey of 30 years the medal was finally awarded back to Nassiri during a wonderful ceremony in the presence of President Aján in Tehran four months ago. Nassiri then decided to donate this medal to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.

Many people participated in the donation ceremony including kids and Iranians living in Switzerland, as well as the Iranian Ambassador and Ali Moradi, President of Iran’s Weightlifting Federation.
Francis Gabet, Director of the Olympic Museum and Cultural Heritage welcomed Nassiri and introduced him to audience as an amazing Olympian who competed in four Games and collected many world titles and Olympic medals. Nassiri received a Certificate of Appreciation signed by IOC President Thomas Bach.
In his speech, Nassiri pointed out that it was the most important moment in his career to be here and donate his silver medal from 1972 to the right place.

Source: Amir Sedighi