article by Nicola Pucci
It is certainly not uncommon for champions of any sport, individual or team, to have excelled at the World Championships only to be rejected from the Olympics, never managing to put the most precious gold medal around his neck, precisely the one offered as a prize by those who triumph in the five-circle Arengo. More than any other, Italian volleyball comes to mind, which has collected a fair number of successes in practically every international event, also failing to get the chance at the Games. Or Nole Djokovic himself, probably the strongest and most successful tennis player ever, but who had to settle for a paltry bronze at the Olympics in 2008 in Beijing.
The protagonist of our story today is undoubtedly less well-knownwill certainly not belong to the small group of the most acclaimed champions in the sports encyclopedia, but when you have read these few lines that I am about to write, you will see that he will not only have captured your attention, but will also have won your admiration.
Mahmoud Namdjou is Iranianand this in itself is an interesting element considering that from that distant country there are not very many athletes who have risen to the honor of the news, he is a weightlifter by trade, and already here things are going decidedly better since it is a welcome and practiced in Iran, and if it saw the light on September 22, 1918 in Rascht, it means that we are dealing with an athlete who had to perform at the turn of the Second World War. Which, probably, denied him any further success in the international field.
In fact Namdjou, who moved to Tehran in 1937 where he worked as a carpenter, starts lifting at 20and if the war stopped him just when he should have started his competitive climb, once he returned to competing, on the threshold of 30 years he took part in his first Olympics, those of London in 1948, obtaining a flattering fifth place in the bantamweight category, up to 56 kg.
In that year 1948, however, the Iranian lifter has the opportunity to lead the world ranking compiled by Oscar Statethen general secretary of the International Weightlifting Federation, having lifted a total of 310kg. which are equivalent to the new world recordpreceding the 1948 Olympic champion, the American Joseph Di Pietro, “stopped” at 307.5 kg. with which you won in London. In his comment, State has the opportunity to state that “Namdjou’s performance with 310 kg. puts him at the top of the bantamweight list for 1948. So far we have only heard of him achieving this feat, but I believe he is actually capable of such a performance“. How right Oscar State was will be seen in subsequent years.
In the three years following the London Games, in fact, Namdjou established a real dictatorship in the bantamweight category, triumphing in three consecutive editions of the World Championships, in Scheveningen in 1949, when he set a new world record by lifting 315 kg. and beating not only the Egyptian Kamal Mahgoub but above all Di Pietro, in Paris in 1950when he gets the better of the Soviet Rafaėl’ Čimiškjan and Mahgoub himself, and in Milan in 1951, when Iran achieved a historic double with Ali Mirzaei second by a whisker ahead of the inevitable Egyptian lifter. AND with these credentials Namdjou presented himself at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, inevitably taking on the role of the great favorite.
On July 25, 19 lifters representing 17 countries will meet at the Messuhalli Hall of the Finnish capital, with the same Namdjou, Mirzaei and Mahgoub who are the most credible contenders to occupy the three places on the podium. Ma for the first time in the history of the Games the USSR is called to participate, ed he is truly a representative of the “Great Mother Russia” to play the role of loose cannon, Ivan Udodovwho survived the Buchenwald extermination camp and then became, forced by his doctor to lift weights as part of a recovery program, one of the most acclaimed champions.
We start with the slow press, and Ali Mirzaei, with a lift of 95 kg, is the strongest of the lot, preceding the same Udodov and Namdjou, who lift 90 kg.as well as the Filipino Pedro Landero and the German Joseph Schuster, who were then destined to be relegated in the rankings.
A 97.5 kg snatch, a new Olympic record, allows Udodov to leap into the lead of the competition, matching Mirzaei who does not go beyond 92.5 kg., and if Namdjou remains in contention in his turn by lifting 95 kg. Mahgoub and the South Korean Kim Hae-Nam also make up for it, both with two lifts of 95 kg.
Everything is decided, as is logical, with momentum, and here Udodov, setting another Olympic record with 127.5 kg., goes on to take the gold medal with a total of 315 kg., equaling the record of the world established by Namdjou himself, leaving the two Iranians to battle for the two other steps of the podium. And if the honor of finishing in second place goes to the world champion, who lifts 10 kilograms more than his compatriot, 122.5 kg. against 112.5 kg.silver certainly cannot console those who had dominated that world in the last three years.
Namdjou is 34 years old and meets four seasons later, the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, for the revengein the meantime taking two more world medals, second in Vienna in 1954 behind the Soviet Bakir Farchutdinov but still ahead of Mirzaei, and third in Munich in 1955forced to surrender to another hammer-and-sickle lifter, Vladimir Stogov, and to the American Chuck Vinci.
On November 23, 1956 at Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne Stogov and Vinci are the most fearsome opponents in the race for that Olympic gold medal that Namdjou would love to put around his neck to complete his collection of hits. But the young American is very fastshares with the Soviet the provisional first place with slow press and snatch of 105 kg., and finally with a momentum of 132.5 kg. wins the victory with the new world record, 342.5 kg, ahead of Stogov by 5 kg. Mahmoud lifts a total of 332.5 kg., which it allows him, at least, to climb to the third step of the podiumholding off the South Korean Yu In-Ho who in turn, with a momentum of 135 kg., signed a new record which gave him the final fourth place, ahead of his compatriot Kim Hae-Nam.
The Olympic defeat in Melbourne, with another medal but certainly not the one he had dreamed of, could convince the now 38-year-old Iranian that in Rome, in 1960, he could deserve another chance at a gold medalall the more so in the following two years, 1957 and 1958, Namdjou is still competitive to the point of reaching the podium both at the World Championships held at home in Tehranthird behind the unbeatable Stogov and compatriot Ali Safa-Sonboli, than at the Asian Games (already won in 1951 in New Delhi when he overtook Mirzaei) of Tokyo, second only to the Japanese Shigeo Kogure, 17 years his junior. But the national qualifications fail his aspirations, and then, given that he has already started to work as a coach, the time has really come to say enough.
Mahmoud Namdjou retires without the endorsement of the Olympic gold medal, and if that five-ring curse remains a setback, his career still deserves to be considered a hero in Iran.
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2023-09-22 16:47:00
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