History

Iran made its first Summer Olympic appearance in 1900 when fencer Freydoun Malkom took part. The nation would not return until 1948 and has competed ever since, with the exceptions of 1980 and 1984. Iran sends a moderately size delegation to the Olympics with at least 50 athletes competing at the previous three games. The nation competes in a variety of sports with athletics, boxing, cycling, judo, shooting, taekwondo, weightlifting and wrestling being the most common.

Iran won its first medal in 1948 and has medaled at each Olympics since. In total the nation has won 68 medals across four sports with wrestling (43) and weightlifting (18) being the most successful sports. The most successful athletes are weightlifter Mohammad Nassiri, taekwondo athlete Hadi Saei and wrestler Gholamreza Takhti whom all won three medals. Nassiri won gold (1968) and silver (1972) in the men’s -56kg and bronze (1976) in the men’s -52kg. Saei won gold (2004) and bronze (2000) in the men’s -68kg and gold (2008) in the men’s -80kg. Takhti won silver (1952) in the men’s freestyle -79kg and gold (1956) and silver (1960) in the men’s freestyle -87kg. In 2016 Iran won 8 medals.

Qualified Quotas

None as of yet.