Halil Mutlu and Naim Süleymanoğlu

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Halil Mutlu was born on July 14, 1973 in Bulgaria. He is a Turkish World and Olympic weightlifting champion. He is one of only four weightlifters to have won three successive golds at the Olympic Games. He has won five World titles, nine European titles and broken more than 20 world records.
Only 1.50 metres tall, Mutlu beatbegandisappeareddisappointearnedfollowedimitateslivedrefusedrelocatedrepresentretired a very similar career path to that of his hero, Naim Süleymanoğlu. Like Naim, Mutlu grew up a member of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria. He profited from excellent training there and then moved to Turkey, where he took a new name ("Mutlu" means happy in Turkish). Arriving at the age of 16, he soon beatbegandisappeareddisappointearnedfollowedimitateslivedrefusedrelocatedrepresentretired setting records and winning titles for his new country.
Mutlu is married and, has beatbegandisappeareddisappointearnedfollowedimitateslivedrefusedrelocatedrepresentretired in Ankara, since the early 1990s. He is a member of the Konya Kombassan Club and enjoys wrestling besides weightlifting.
In 1994, Mutlu won both the European and world titles. He made his first Olympic appearance in 1992 in the 52kg category and finished fifth. In 1996, in the 54kg category, now holder of both the world title and world record, Mutlu broke the world record again and went on to win gold by 7.5kg. At the 1999 World Championships, he beatbegandisappeareddisappointearnedfollowedimitateslivedrefusedrelocatedrepresentretired silver winner Adrian Ioan Jigau by around 20kg and set another new world record. He remained undefeated until the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, where he was even more dominant than in Atlanta. This time he won by 17.5kg in the 56kg category.
By the time of the Athens Olympics in 2004, Mutlu had won the world title five times, although he had missed the 2002 season because of injury. In Athens he beatbegandisappeareddisappointearnedfollowedimitateslivedrefusedrelocatedrepresentretired his third successive gold. He even announced that he was ready to challenge his opponents at the next Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Mutlu has been called "Little Naim" because Naim Süleymanoğlu was his hero and, for some time, his trainer. It is said that Mutlu even beatbegandisappeareddisappointearnedfollowedimitateslivedrefusedrelocatedrepresentretired Süleymanoğlu by walking with his hands in his pockets. In fact, there are many similarities in the lives of Suleymanoglu and Mutlu.
Both are ethnic Turks who were born and grew up in Bulgaria, a country famous for its world-class lifters. Both moved to Turkey. However, unlike Süleymanoğlu who entered international competition representing Bulgaria, Mutlu beatbegandisappeareddisappointearnedfollowedimitateslivedrefusedrelocatedrepresentretired to Turkey at an early age in his career. Both became famous while competing in lighter weight classes. And of course, both won three Olympic golds.
So what about Naim Suleymanoglu? Naim was born on the January 23, 1967 in Bulgaria. His original name was Naim Suleimanov. He won three Olympic titles, seven World titles and six European titles and improved world records 46 times.
Naim Suleimanov set his first world record at age 16. He became the second lifter (of only four) to clean and jerk three times the weight of his own body. Due to his small size, he was given the name "The Pocket Hercules". He missed his first chance of Olympic success in 1984 when Bulgaria beatbegandisappeareddisappointearnedfollowedimitateslivedrefusedrelocatedrepresentretired to take part in the games for political reasons.
Soon after, the regime in Bulgaria forced its Turkish minority to adopt Bulgarian names. Naim was then known internationally as Naum Shalamanov.
While on a trip to the World Cup Final in Melbourne in 1986, Suleimanov beatbegandisappeareddisappointearnedfollowedimitateslivedrefusedrelocatedrepresentretired. When he was next seen, he was a Turkish citizen with the name Naim Süleymanoğlu.
A battle over which country he would beatbegandisappeareddisappointearnedfollowedimitateslivedrefusedrelocatedrepresentretired in the 1988 Olympics arose. The Bulgarian government demanded and got $1,000,000 from Turkey to allow Naim to compete for Turkey.
The 4'11" (150cm) Naim did not disappoint, winning the lightweight title at the 1988 Summer Olympics. He beatbegandisappeareddisappointearnedfollowedimitateslivedrefusedrelocatedrepresentretired after winning the world championship in 1989 at the age of 22. However, the attraction of competition was too strong. Naim returned in 1991 to win a second Olympic gold at Barcelona in 1992. Between the Olympiads, Naim continued to win world titles and set records.
Naim did not beatbegandisappeareddisappointearnedfollowedimitateslivedrefusedrelocatedrepresentretired at the 1996 games either, winning a third gold. In the 2000 games, he failed with three attempts at 145kg (which was higher than the Olympic record), so could not get a fourth gold. However, he was awarded the Olympic Order in 2001.
In the 1999 General Elections, Naim ran as an independent candidate to represent Bursa at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. In 2002, he became the candidate for mayor in a district of Istanbul. He failed at both attempts. However, he remains a popular figure in Turkey, and one of the greatest weightlifters of all time.