I constantly hear about this 4"11 Turkish weightlifter from one of my well-informed friends who says that he was considered “the greatest weightlifter of all time”.
I don’t really know much about the history of lifting, but for the more well informed among us, was he really that great?
And what then made him so darn strong?
I guess I’m a little shocked at his size. He seems… well… tiny.
I don’t think he was the greatest of all time. But here you go. A bit of a history… For a small guy he was certainly like a piece of iron.
He may well have had the highest max lift:weight ratio of anyone ever. You gotta figure that at 4’11", he can’t weigh all that much, and in the pictures he looks pretty thin anyway.
So yeah, on a relative strength basis, I can believe it. But on an absolute strength basis? No way.
Good genes, good training, and in all probability, good drugs.