Halil Mutlu

Halil Mutlu
Personal information
Surname:	Halil Mutlu
Nationality:	Turkey
Date of birth:	July 14, 1973
Place of birth:	Postnik near Kardzhali , Bulgaria
Size:	150 cm
Medal table

Halil Mutlu (born July 14, 1973 in Postnik near Kardzhali , Bulgaria as Huben Hubenov) is a former Turkish weightlifter and three-time Olympic champion .

Career

Mutlu has won three gold medals at the Olympic Games, five world championships and nine European championships in his career . He also set 21 world records .

Mutlu began his international career as a weightlifter at the 1990 European Championships in Aalborg in the class up to 52 kg. With an output of 230 kg (102.5 kg / 127.5 kg), the then 16-year-old placed fourth. The winner was Ivan Ivanov with 265.0 kg. Just one year later he was able to win three bronze medals at the European Championships in Wladyslowo with 240 kg in a duel, consisting of 105 kg in snatch and 135 kg in push . When he took up his first Junior World Championship five days later, he was able to secure silver with the same performance. With 127.5 kg in the jerk and thus 232.5 kg in a duel, he only reached fourth place.

1992 Mutlu played his first Olympic Games. Although he already took third place at the European Championships in Hungary with 247.5 kg (110 kg / 137.5 kg) and took silver at the Junior World Championships in Varna with 250 kg (112.5 kg / 137.5 kg) , his performance of 247.5 kg in Barcelona was only enough for fifth place. Ivanov from Bulgaria was the winner again . With the same performance, however, he won his first three international gold medals at the Junior European Championship in Cardiff .

With the weight class change in 1993 Mutlu entered the class up to 54 kg and increased enormously. Just six months after Cardiff, he won the Junior World Championships in Cheb with 275 kg in a duel (122.5 kg / 152.5 kg). Second was due to the higher body weight of the Bulgarian Sewdalin Mintschew with the same performance. For the Active World Championships in Melbourne Mutlu had to give up again with the same performance Ivan Ivanov, who scored 277.5 kg.

In the following years Mutlu won, with the exception of the 1995 World Cup in China , every European and World Cup he participated in. He also won the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta with a weight of 287.5 kg. Mutlu had temporarily increased to 290 kg (World Cup 1994 in Istanbul) during this period.

In 1998 the flyweight was abolished and he switched to the bantamweight up to 56 kg and continued his winning streak there. In a large part of his competitions he was so superior to his opponents that he either did not start his third attempt or just to set a new world record.

He won the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney superiorly with 305 kg in a duel, three world records and 17.5 kg behind the runner-up.

After he did not take part in international competitions in 2002 due to injuries, he started the 2003 European Championship in Loutraki and the World Championships in Vancouver in the class up to 62 kg, which he won both with 320 kg and 322.5 kg. At the 2004 Olympic Games, however, he again competed in the bantamweight up to 56 kg and won his third Olympic gold medal with 295.0 kg in a duel.

In 2005 he went back to the European Championships in Sofia in the class up to 62 kg and won gold with 307.5 kg. In the same year, he was banned from the IMF for two years after a doping test found him to be nandrolone . Mutlu himself denied that it was knowingly.

In 2008 he attempted a comeback to become the only weightlifter to win four Olympic Games. However, after he was only able to bring in two valid attempts at the European Championships in Lignano and with 269 kg in the duel remained far below expectations, he did not take part in Beijing despite the European Championship , where he would have had no chance of victory with this performance.

Others

• Born in Bulgaria, Mutlu, like his teammate Naim Süleymanoğlu , belonged to the Turkish minority and emigrated to Turkey.
• Mutlu is one of the few weightlifters who has hit three times her body weight.
• Similar to Süleymanoğlu, the "Pocket Hercules", Mutlu also received nicknames during his career. The best known are “Little Dynamo” and based on its model “Little Naim”.

Personal best

• Snatch: 147.5 kg at the 2003 World Championships in Vancouver in the 62 kg class.
• Push: 175 kg at the 2003 European Championships in Loutraki in the class up to 62 kg.
• Duel: 322.5 kg at the 2003 World Cup in Vancouver in the class up to 62 kg.

Awards

• In 2000, 2004 he received the Sedat Simavi Prize for Sport

Web links

• Portrait on chidlovski.net (English)
• Halil Mutlu at the Institute for Applied Training Science

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Halil Mutlu in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original ), accessed on December 12, 2009
2. ↑ Nandrolone in the A-sample: Weightlifter Mutlu denies intentional doping. (No longer available online.) In: RP Online . May 27, 2005, formerly in the original ; Retrieved April 13, 2014 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.