Weightlifting chief says Iran’s new generation is ready to deliver

TEHRAN – The president of Iran’s Weightlifting Federation says the sport has turned a major corner after years of hard work to rebuild its talent pipeline.

Speaking after Iran’s junior team won the world title in Egypt and Alireza Yousefi smashed the clean and jerk world record in India, Sajad Anoushiravani said he has fought for four years to create a proper generational development chain in Iranian weightlifting.

“We struggled for four years to build this system, and we went through a lot of difficulties,” he said. “Now we can say we’ll start seeing the fruits of that work.”

Anoushiravani, who was present on the platform for both recent achievements, stressed that Iran cannot afford any interruption in training as the team prepare for the Nagoya Asian Games and the World Championships in Egypt, which will serve as the first qualification event for the Olympic cycle.

“We must not allow even one day of disruption in the national team’s training,” he said.

He pointed to the rise of a younger, faster-developing squad, noting that over the past three years Iran has undergone a major generational transition. The team’s average age has dropped from around 26–27 to 22.

Among the standout names is Alireza Nasiri, whom Anoushiravani described as one of the top three lifters in his weight class in the world. Nasiri was identified as a talent at just 16 and has been in national-team camps for three and a half years, excelling across youth and junior levels.

Anoushiravani also highlighted Alireza Yousefi, who recently returned strong after major surgery and is now, at just 23, one of the leading contenders for Olympic gold.

Iran’s junior men also underlined the depth of the system, winning the world title in Egypt for a second straight year in both the medal standings and the points rankings. Anoushiravani said 50 percent of that squad has now been promoted into the senior national-team camp.

“That was the missing link in our development chain,” he said. “We worked for four years to build it.”

On the women’s side, Anoushiravani said there is also reason for optimism, pointing to Iran’s growing medal record at international events.

“We’re very hopeful the number of women’s medals this year will double compare to last year,” he said.

His message was clear: momentum must not be lost.

“We have to keep training camps going under any circumstances,” he added. “There is no room to stop. Any pause in our program will hurt our results in Nagoya and at the world championships in China.”