Halil Mutlu biography
Halil Mutlu, authentic identify Huben Hubenov, (born July 14, 1973, Postnik, Bulg.), Turkish weight lifter and world record-holder who gained three consecutive Olympic gold medals (1996, 2000, and 2004). Though standing a diminutive 1.5 metres (4 toes 11 inches) and weighing 56 kg (123 kilos), the “Little Dynamo” had loomed massive over the weight-lifting stage and within the Turkish creativeness. Though Mutlu persistently emerged victorious, his matches continued to carry an air of suspense, as he repeatedly broke his personal world information.
Born to Turkish dad and mom in Bulgaria, he defected to Turkey in 1989 within the footsteps of fellow ethnic Turk and weight-lifting nice Naim Suleymanoglu, who had left Bulgaria three years earlier to flee the federal government’s “Bulgarization” of the Turkish minority. After the transfer he modified his identify to Mutlu from Hubenov to reaffirm his Turkish heritage, and he grew to become a member of the famend weight-lifting staff in Ankara.
At age 18 Mutlu started aggressive weight lifting, and he positioned fifth within the 54-kg weight division on the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. Two years later he swept each the European championships and the world championships, and he subsequently missed putting first in just one worldwide competitors (Chinese lifter Zhang Xianseng bested him on the 1995 world championships). At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, he set an Olympic document when he gained gold. In 1999 Mutlu, who had by then set greater than 20 world information throughout his profession, gained gold at that yr’s world championships and was named Turkey’s Best Sportsman of the Year. Mutlu gained gold the next yr at each the 2000 European championships and the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney; in Sydney he additionally set three world information: one within the snatch (138 kg), one within the clear and jerk (167.5 kg), and one for the whole weight lifted (305 kg).
In spite of great accidents suffered in 2002, he emerged from the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens having gained his third consecutive gold medal. The following yr, nevertheless, Mutlu examined optimistic for anabolic steroids and was banned from the game for 2 years, although he maintained that he had not knowingly consumed any performance-enhancing medication. Mutlu later started coaching in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, however in July 2008 he introduced his withdrawal from the competitors, citing an incapacity to carry his goal weight in observe.
