Olympic history of Iran
19th | 22nd | 28 |
For the first time Iran took part in the Olympic Games in 1900. The second participation followed 48 years later at the London Games in 1948. Since then, the country has sent athletes to all Summer Olympic Games with two exceptions . In 1980 and 1984, Iran did not participate in the Games due to the First Gulf War. Since 1956, Iran has also been represented at several Winter Olympic Games . Young athletes have been sent to both of the youth summer games that have been held so far.
Overview
Summer games
1900 to 1968
In 1900 in Paris the fencer Fereydoun Malkom became the first Iranian to compete in the Olympic Games. The first woman to represent Iran at the Olympic Games was the long jumper Simin Safamehr on October 14, 1964.
With an official Olympic team, Iran did not return to the Olympic stage until 1948 in London. The team consisted of weightlifters, wrestlers, boxers, shooters and a basketball team. In the following participations, Iranian athletes competed in athletics (from 1952), cycling, diving, gymnastics, swimming and soccer (from 1964), water polo (from 1976), table tennis (from 1992), judo (from 1996), taekwondo, Riding and canoeing (from 2000), archery, rowing and badminton (from 2008) and volleyball (from 2016).
The weightlifters produced Iran's first medalist in 1948. In the featherweight division, Mohammad Jafar Salmasi won the bronze medal. His teammate Mahmoud Namdjou reached 5th place in the bantamweight division. In freestyle wrestling, Mansour Raisi was fourth in the flyweight division. In 1952 Mahmoud Namdjou won silver in the bantamweight division, Ali Mirzaei took bronze. In the light heavyweight division, Mohammad Rahnavardi finished fourth. The freestyle wrestlers won five medals. Silver won Nasser Givehchi in the featherweight and Gholamreza Takhti in the middleweight division. Bronze went to Mahmoud Mollaghassemi in the flyweight, Jahanbakht Tofigh in the lightweight and Abdollah Mojtabavi in the welterweight.
In 1956, weightlifter Namdjou won another bronze medal in bantamweight. Fourth places reached Jalal Mansouri in the light heavyweight division, Mohammad Rahnavardi in the middle heavyweight division and Firuz Pojhan in the heavyweight division. Freestyle wrestlers became Iran's first Olympic champions. Imam-Ali Habibi lightweight and Gholamreza Takhti light heavyweight won the first gold medals. Mohammad Ali Khojastehpour in flyweight and Mohammad Mehdi Yaghoubi in bantamweight won silver.
In 1960 weightlifter Hassan Esmaeil Elmkhah won the bronze bantamweight. Freestyle wrestler Takhti won his third Olympic medal with silver in the light heavyweight division. Bronze won Mohammad Ebrahim Seifpour in the flyweight and the Greco-Roman wrestler Mohammad Paziraei in the flyweight. In 1964, two bronze medals in freestyle could be won by Ali Akbar Heidari in the flyweight and Mohammad-Ali Sanatkaran in the welterweight. Gholamreza Takhti was fourth in the light heavyweight division in his fourth Olympic participation. The soccer team, which was taking part in the Olympic Games for the first time, failed in the preliminary round. The team lost 4-0 against Germany.
In 1968, Iran remained in the tradition of victorious weightlifters and wrestlers. In weightlifting, Mohammad Nassiri was Olympic champion in bantamweight. Parviz Jalayer won silver in the lightweight. In freestyle wrestling, Abdollah Movahed became an Olympic lightweight champion. Aboutaleb Talebi won bronze in the bantamweight division and Shamseddin Seyed Abbasi in the featherweight division.
1972 to 1996
In 1972, too, athletes from the weightlifting and wrestling sectors ensured Iran's success. In weightlifting, defending champion Mohammad Nassiri won silver in the bantamweight this time. Rahim Aliabadi also won silver in the light flyweight division of the Greco-Roman wrestling. Ibrahim Javadi won bronze in the light flyweight division in freestyle wrestling . The soccer team failed again in the preliminary round, but was able to show a respectable success with a 1-0 victory over Brazil. In 1976 the freestyle wrestler Mansour Barzegar won silver in the welterweight division. Weightlifter Nassiri won his third Olympic medal with a bronze flyweight. The soccer team was able to qualify for a quarter-finals for the first time. Here they failed with 1: 2 at the Soviet Union.
In 1988 the Iranian Olympic team could only celebrate one medal. In bantamweight, freestyle wrestler Askari Mohammadian won silver. In 1992 Mohammadian was able to repeat the success, this time in featherweight. There were also two bronze medals by the brothers Amir Reza Khadem in the welterweight division and Rasoul Khadem in the middleweight division. In Atlanta 1996 Rasoul Khadem was then Olympic light heavyweight champion, while his brother Amir Reza could win another bronze medal in the middleweight division. Abbas Jadidi won silver in the heavyweight division.
2000 until today
Three Olympic victories in 2000 meant the most successful participation by an Iranian team in the Olympic Games to date. In weightlifting, Hossein Tavakoli in the heavyweight division and Hossein Rezazadeh in the super heavyweight division became Olympic champions. Freestyle wrestler Alireza Dabir achieved the third Olympic victory in featherweight. When he first participated in an Olympic Taekwondo tournament, Hadi Saei Bonehkohal won bronze in the featherweight division.
In 2004 Hossein Rezazadeh was able to repeat his Olympic victory in the super heavyweight division. He was the first Iranian to win a second gold medal. In Taekwondo, Hadi Saei Bonehkohal was Olympic featherweight champion. Youssef Karami won bronze in the welterweight division . In freestyle wrestling, Masoud Mostafa Jokar won silver in the lightweight. Alireza Rezaei also won silver in the super heavyweight division. There was also a bronze medal by Alireza Heidari in the heavyweight division. In 2008 Taekwondoin Hadi Saei Bonehkohal was once again Olympic champion, this time in the welterweight division. Together with the weightlifter Hossein Rezazadeh, he was the only athlete in Iran who could win a second gold medal. With his bronze medal won in 2000, he is the most successful Iranian Olympic athlete to date. Freestyle wrestler Morad Mohammadi won bronze in the lightweight.
Participation in London in 2012 turned out to be Iran’s most successful participation in the Olympic Games to date. 13 medals were won, including five gold, six silver and two bronze medals. Three Olympic champions were Greco-Roman style wrestlers. Hamid Soryan Reihanpour won the featherweight division, Omid Haji Noroozi the lightweight division and Ghasem Rezaei the heavyweight division. In weightlifting, Behdad Salimikordasiabi first won a gold medal in the super heavyweight division. He won ahead of teammate Sajjad Anoushiravani . Navab Nasirshelal also won silver in the heavyweight division. Two doping incidents subsequently brought Iranian weightlifters into the medal ranks or improved the medal. In the light heavyweight division, Kianoush Rostami initially took third place. After the silver medalist, the Russian Apti Auchadow , was convicted and disqualified in post-doping tests, Rostami received the silver medal. In the middle heavyweight division, Saeid Mohammadpour finished 5th. Both the Olympic champion, the Kazakh Ilya Ilyin , as well as the Russians Alexander Iwanow (2nd place) and Andrei Demanow (4th place) and the Moldovan Anatolii Cîrîcu were convicted and disqualified in subsequent doping tests. With that, Mohammadpour later became Olympic champion. In freestyle wrestling, Sadegh Saeed Goudarzi won silver in the middleweight division, Ehsan Naser Lashgari bronze in the light heavyweight division and Komeil Ghasemi bronze in the heavyweight division. The other two silver medals won the Taekwondoin Mohammad Bagheri Motamed in the featherweight and the athlete Ehsan Hadadi in the discus throw. The marksman Elaheh Ahmadi achieved 6th place with the air rifle.
In 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, the weightlifters achieved two Olympic victories by Kianoush Rostami in light heavyweight and Sohrab Moradi in middle heavyweight. Freestyle wrestler Hassan Yazdani won another Olympic victory in the middleweight division. Komeil Ghasemi won super heavyweight silver, while Hassan Rahimi won bronze at featherweight. Two bronze medals were won in the Greco-Roman style by Saeid Mourad Abdvali in the middleweight division and Ghasem Razaei in the heavyweight division. Taekwondoin Kimia Alisadeh won the bronze medal in the featherweight division, making her the first Iranian female athlete to win an Olympic medal. In saber fencing, Mojtaba Abedini reached 4th place. Shooter Elaheh Ahmadi repeated her sixth place with the air rifle. Her teammate Najmeh Khedmati took 8th place in the three-position fight with the small bore rifle.
Winter games
Iran first took part in the Winter Olympics in 1956. The first winter Olympic team consisted of alpine ski racers. Iran also took part in cross-country skiing at the following winter games (from 2002).
The first winter Olympians were Reza Bazargan, Mahmoud Beiglou and Benik Amirian on January 29, 1956. It wasn't until February 24, 2010 that Marjan Kalhor, the country's first woman, competed at the Winter Games.
The best results, in each case 30th place in the overall classification, were achieved by Karim Aga Khan in 1964 , Hassan Shemshaki in 1998 and Mohammad Kiadarbandsari in 2014. All three results were achieved in alpine slalom.
Youth games
52 young people, 31 boys and 21 girls, took part in the sports archery, swimming, taekwondo, basketball, boxing, canoeing, soccer, judo, shooting volleyball, wrestling and weightlifting at the first 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. A total of five medals were won, two gold, two silver and one bronze medal. Olympic champions were the Taekwondoin Kaveh Rezaei in featherweight and weightlifter Alireza Kazeminejad in super heavyweight. Silver won the Taekwondoin Mohammad Soleimani in the flyweight and the freestyle wrestler Mehran Sheikhi in the flyweight. Bronze went to the light heavyweight wrestler Youssef Ghaderina.
In the 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing , 16 young people took part, this time 14 boys and two girls. The athletes competed in athletics, beach volleyball, shooting, swimming, horse riding, judo, taekwondo, wrestling and weightlifting. The athletes won six medals, three gold and three bronze medals. Olympic champions were the judoka Ramin Safavieh in the heavyweight division, the Taekwondoin Mehdi Eshaghi in the flyweight division and the Taekwondoin Kimia Alizadeh in the light heavyweight division. Bronze won the Taekwondoin Danial Salehimehr in the light heavyweight, as well as the wrestlers Mohammad Aghania in the featherweight and Keramat Abdevali in the lightweight, both in the Greco-Roman style.
At the 2012 Winter Youth Games in Innsbruck , three young people, two boys and one girl, competed in alpine skiing and cross-country skiing. At the 2016 Winter Youth Games in Lillehammer, there were two youngsters, one boy and one girl. They took part in the alpine skiing competitions.
Overview of the participants
Summer games
year | Athletes | Flag bearer | sports | Medals | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
total | m | w | total | rank | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1896 | not participated | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1900 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1904-1936 | not participated | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1948 | 36 | 36 | 0 | Mostafa Baharmast | 5 | 7th | 8th | 3 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 34 | |||||||||||||||||||
1952 | 22nd | 22nd | 0 | Mahmoud Namdjou | 7th | 8th | 6th | 1 | 3 | 4th | 7th | 30th | |||||||||||||||||||
1956 | 17th | 17th | 0 | Mahmoud Namdjou | 7th | 8th | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 14th | |||||||||||||||||||
1960 | 23 | 23 | 0 | Jafar Salmasi | 5 | 12 | 4th | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4th | 27 | ||||||||||||||||||
1964 | 62 | 58 | 4th | Nosratallah Shahmir | 4th | 5 | 12 | 5 | 4th | 8th | 4th | 1 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 2 | 2 | 34 | |||||||||||||
1968 | 14th | 14th | 0 | Abulfazil Anvari | 4th | 9 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 19th | |||||||||||||||||||
1972 | 48 | 48 | 0 | Abdollah Movahed | 2 | 3 | 14th | 5 | 3 | 4th | 17th | 2 | 1 | 3 | 28 | ||||||||||||||||
1976 | 84 | 80 | 4th | Muslim Eskandar-Filabi | 13 | 7th | 17th | 6th | 4th | 4th | 7th | 15th | 11 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 33 | ||||||||||||||
1980-1984 | not participated | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1988 | 23 | 23 | 0 | Mohamed Reza Tupchi | 15th | 1 | 7th | 1 | 1 | 36 | |||||||||||||||||||||
1992 | 36 | 36 | 0 | Alireza Soleimani | 5 | 16 | 5 | 2 | 7th | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 44 | |||||||||||||||||
1996 | 18th | 17th | 1 | Lida Fariman | 10 | 4th | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 43 | ||||||||||||||||
2000 | 33 | 32 | 1 | Amir Reza Khadem | 6th | 11 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4th | 27 | |||||||||||
2004 | 37 | 36 | 1 | Arash Miresmaeili | 6th | 13 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4th | 1 | 1 | 6th | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6th | 29 | ||||||||||||
2008 | 54 | 51 | 3 | Homa Hosseini | 3 | 12 | 3 | 12 | 6th | 3 | 1 | 6th | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 51 | |||||||||||
2012 | 52 | 44 | 8th | Ali Mazaheri | 1 | 6th | 13 | 4th | 3 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 6th | 2 | 13 | 15th | |||||||||
2016 | 63 | 54 | 9 | Zahra Nemati | 2 | 5 | 12 | 1 | 5 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 4th | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 3 | 1 | 4th | 8th | 25th | |||||||
total | 19th | 22nd | 28 | 69 | 44 |
Winter games
year | Athletes | Flag bearer | sports | Medals | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
total | m | w | total | rank | |||||||
1924-1952 | not participated | ||||||||||
1956 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | |||||||
1960 | not participated | ||||||||||
1964 | 4th | 4th | 0 | Ovaness Megerdonian | 4th | ||||||
1968 | 4th | 4th | 0 | Ovaness Megerdonian | 4th | ||||||
1972 | 4th | 4th | 0 | Ovaness Megerdonian | 4th | ||||||
1976 | 4th | 4th | 0 | Lotfollah Shemshaki | 4th | ||||||
1980-1994 | not participated | ||||||||||
1998 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Hassan Shemshaki | 1 | ||||||
2002 | 2 | 2 | 0 | Bagher Kalhor | 1 | 1 | |||||
2006 | 2 | 2 | 0 | Alidad Saveh Shemshaki | 1 | 1 | |||||
2010 | 4th | 3 | 1 | Marjan Kalhor | 3 | 1 | |||||
2014 | 5 | 3 | 2 | Hossein Saveh Shemshaki | 3 | 2 | |||||
2018 | 4th | 2 | 2 | Samaneh Beirami Baher | 2 | 2 | |||||
total | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
List of medal winners
Gold medals
Silver medals
Bronze medals
Medals by sport
sport | gold | silver | bronze | total |
---|---|---|---|---|
Wrestling | 9 | 14th | 20th | 43 |
Weightlifting | 8th | 6th | 5 | 19th |
Taekwondo | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6th |
athletics | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
total | 19th | 22nd | 28 | 69 |
Web links
- Official website of the National Olympic Committee of Iran (English, Persian)
- Iran on Olympic.org - The Official website of the Olympic movement (English)
- Iran in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )