The Most Famous

ATHLETES from Iran

This page contains a list of the greatest Iranian Athletes. The pantheon dataset contains 6,025 Athletes, 11 of which were born in Iran. This makes Iran the birth place of the 60th most number of Athletes behind Uzbekistan, and Taiwan.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Iranian Athletes of all time. This list of famous Iranian Athletes is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Iranian Athletes.

1. Hadi Choopan (b. 1987)

With an HPI of 46.16, Hadi Choopan is the most famous Iranian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 28 different languages on wikipedia.

Hadi Choopan (Persian: هادی چوپان; also Romanized as Hādi Chupān; born September 26, 1987), known by his nickname "The Persian Wolf", is an Iranian professional bodybuilder who competes in the men's open bodybuilding division in the IFBB Pro League. Known for his legs and conditioning, Choopan is a former Mr. Olympia, having won the title in the 2022 Mr. Olympia competition. Born in Abnow, Fars, Choopan developed an interest in bodybuilding at an early age. In 2005, he won his first national title. He won the WBPF Asia Championships in 2013 and had continued success at the WBPF World Bodybuilding Championships in 2013, 2014, and 2015. He made his Mr. Olympia debut in 2019, placing third and winning the People's Champion Award at the show for the first time. In 2022, he became the first Iranian competitor to win the Mr. Olympia contest. In 2024, he won the Arnold Classic and the Arnold Classic UK.

2. Mahmoud Namjoo (1918 - 1990)

With an HPI of 45.09, Mahmoud Namjoo is the 2nd most famous Iranian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Mahmoud Namjoo (Persian: محمود نامجو, September 22, 1918 – January 21, 1989) was an Iranian bantamweight weightlifter. He competed at the 1948, 1952 and 1956 Olympics and placed fifth, second and third, respectively. At the world championships he won three gold, one silver and two bronze medals between 1949 and 1957, becoming the first Iranian weightlifter to win a world title. Namjoo was also the first Asian weightlifter to set a world record; during his career he set four: one in clean and jerk in 1949 and three in the total, in 1948, 1949 and 1951. Namjoo was born in Rasht in 1918 and in 1937 moved to Tehran, where he worked at a carpentry workshop. He took weightlifting in a gym nearby. Besides weightlifting he also competed in bodybuilding, and won the Mr. Universe title in his weight division in 1948, placing fifth in 1955. In 1956 he spent two months working as a weightlifting coach in Turkey. He continued training in his forties and unsuccessfully tried to qualify for the 1960 Olympics. He died of pancreatic cancer aged 70.

3. Ali Mirzaei (1929 - 2020)

With an HPI of 41.63, Ali Mirzaei is the 3rd most famous Iranian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Ali Mirzaei (Persian: علی میرزایی, 28 January 1929 – 18 July 2020) was an Iranian weightlifter who competed in the 56 kg category. His greatest achievement was winning the bronze medal in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki). He won twice a medal at the World Championships. The silver medal in Milan at the 1951 World Weightlifting Championships and the bronze medal three years later in Vienna at the 1954 World Weightlifting Championships. He won the silver medal at the 1951 Asian Games. During his career Mirzaei set 1 world record.

4. Bahman Golbarnezhad (1968 - 2016)

With an HPI of 36.15, Bahman Golbarnezhad is the 4th most famous Iranian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Bahman Golbarnezhad (Persian: بهمن گلبارنژاد, 12 June 1968 – 17 September 2016) was an Iranian Paralympic racing cyclist competing in C4 classification events and an earlier powerlifter. During his powerlifting career, he won twelve gold medals and one silver medal in international competitions. Golbarnezhad had represented Iran in two Summer Paralympic Games, first in 2012 in London and later in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. He was the only Iranian cyclist at the 2016 Paralympics. He was a veteran of the Iran–Iraq war. On 17 September 2016, Golbarnezhad died in an accident which occurred during the 2016 Summer Paralympics' men's C4-5 road cycling event.

5. Hadi Saei (b. 1976)

With an HPI of 34.70, Hadi Saei is the 5th most famous Iranian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Hadi Saei (Persian: هادی ساعی, born June 10, 1976) is an Iranian councilor and former taekwondo athlete who became the most successful Iranian athlete in Olympic history and the most titled champion in this sport by winning 9 world class titles (three olympic titles in 2000, 2004 and 2008, two world championships titles, four world cup titles and one world olympic qualification tournament). Earlier in his career and in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Saei had won the Bronze medal. He was elected as member of City Council of Tehran in 2006 local elections and was reelected in 2013 but lost the 2017 election. He is one of the three most medal winners olympians in the sport of Taekwondo.

6. Ehsan Haddadi (b. 1985)

With an HPI of 32.61, Ehsan Haddadi is the 6th most famous Iranian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 28 different languages.

Ehsan Haddadi or Ehsan Hadadi (Persian: احسان حدادی, born January 20, 1985, in Tehran) is a former Iranian discus thrower. His height is 193 cm and his weight is 127 kg. The 2004 Asian Junior Champion, he won a gold medal at the 2004 World Junior Championships In Grosseto, the inaugural Iranian to win a medal at any global athletics competition. In 2005 he won the Asian Championships in Incheon with a throw of 65.25 metres. In December 2006, he added another gold medal to his record, winning the title at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar. In 2007, he won the Asian Championships in Amman and defended his title. His personal best throw is 69.32 m, achieved on June 3, 2008, in Tallinn, Estonia. This is the current Asian record. Because of his good performance over the whole season 2008, he was considered a medal contender entering the 2008 Summer Olympics, but he ranked 17th with a 61.34-meter throw and failed to qualify for the final; Haddadi blamed his poor results on his injuries. After more than a year's absence due to shoulder surgery, In November 2009, he won his third in a row continental title in Guangzhou. After winning 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou and 2011 Asian Championship in Kobe, Haddadi made history by becoming the first Iranian athlete to win a medal at IAAF World Championships in Athletics, he won bronze in 2011 World Championships in Athletics in Daegu. Haddadi competed and won a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics with a 68.18 m throw. Iranian athletes have participated in the Olympic Games since 1948 and before Haddadi's silver medal, had only attained medals in wrestling, Olympian weightlifting, and taekwondo. His achievement was a milestone in Iran's Olympic history in that it ended Iran's 64-year-old medal drought in events other than the aforementioned. Haddadi offered his silver medal to children with cancer, and travelled to Azerbaijan to gather funds for the 2012 earthquakes' victims. On 27 March 2020, Haddadi announced he tests positive for COVID-19 during the pandemic in Iran.

7. Javad Foroughi (b. 1979)

With an HPI of 32.39, Javad Foroughi is the 7th most famous Iranian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Javad Foroughi (Persian: جواد فروغی; born 11 September 1979) is an Iranian sport shooter, born in Dehloran. He represented Iran at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, competing in Men's 10 metre air pistol and in Mixed 10 metre air pistol team. Foroughi competed in the men's 10 metre air pistol competition in the 2020 Olympics on 24 July. He qualified to the final, finishing 5th with a score of 580. In the final he started out in the lead in the 1st competition stage, scoring 101.0, a slight distance to 2nd place Pang Wei with 99.7. In the 2nd competition stage, Foroughi remained in the lead throughout the entire competition, finishing 1st and winning gold ahead of silver medalist Serbian Damir Mikec. Foroughi scored 244.8 and set a new Olympic record. His medal was Iran’s first medal in Shooting in the history of Olympics. At the age of 41, Foroughi became the oldest medalist in Iranian Olympic history. Mahmoud Namjoo had won a bronze medal at the age of 38 in 1956 Melbourne. Foroughi is a nurse in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and served in Syria in 2012-13 as part of the Corps' medical deployment. Iranian human rights activists decried Foroughi's Olympic medal. For example, United for Navid, a campaign set up by Iranian-American women's rights activist Masih Alinejad of the VOA Persian Service after the execution of Navid Afkari, said that due to Foroughi's membership in IRGC, he "is a current and longtime member of a terrorist organization".

8. Zahra Nemati (b. 1985)

With an HPI of 31.37, Zahra Nemati is the 8th most famous Iranian Athlete. Her biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Zahra Nemati (Persian: زهرا نعمتی, born 30 April 1985) is an Iranian Paralympic and Olympic archer. She originally competed in taekwondo before she was paralyzed in a car accident. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics she won two medals, an individual gold and team bronze. She has qualified to compete at both the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2016 Summer Paralympics. She was the flag bearer at the 2016 Olympics and the postponed 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo where she shared the honour with thrower Nourmohammad Arekhi.

9. Behdad Salimi (b. 1989)

With an HPI of 30.88, Behdad Salimi is the 9th most famous Iranian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Behdad Salimi Kordasiabi (Persian: بهداد سلیمی كردآسیابی, born 8 December 1989) is former Iranian heavyweight weightlifter. He won gold medals at the 2012 Olympics, 2010–2018 Asian Games, 2010 and 2011 World Championships and 2009–2012 Asian Championships. He served as the flag bearer for Iran at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Asian Games.

10. Elnaz Rekabi (b. 1989)

With an HPI of 29.84, Elnaz Rekabi is the 10th most famous Iranian Athlete. Her biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Elnaz Rekabi (Persian: الناز رکابی Persian pronunciation: [elˈnɒːz ɾekɒːˈbiː]; born 20 August 1989) is an Iranian competition climber. She participated at the 2021 IFSC Climbing World Championships, being awarded the bronze medal in the women's combined event. Rekabi has also finished on the podium three times at the IFSC Climbing Asian Championships, with one silver and two bronze medals. She made global headlines in 2022 when she violated Iran's mandatory hijab rule while participating in the 2022 IFSC Climbing Asian Championships in Seoul, South Korea. Occurring during the Mahsa Amini protests, it was widely interpreted as an intentional violation to signal support for the protests.

People

Pantheon has 69 people classified as Iranian athletes born between 1918 and 2002. Of these 69, 66 (95.65%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Iranian athletes include Hadi Choopan, Hadi Saei, and Ehsan Haddadi. The most famous deceased Iranian athletes include Mahmoud Namjoo, Ali Mirzaei, and Bahman Golbarnezhad. As of April 2024, 58 new Iranian athletes have been added to Pantheon including Hadi Choopan, Javad Foroughi, and Elnaz Rekabi.