Naim Süleymanoğlu (Bulgarian: Наим Сюлейманоглу; 23 January 1967 – 18 November 2017)[1][2] was a Turkish Olympic weightlifter.

At 147 cm in height, Süleymanoğlu's short stature and great strength led to him being nicknamed "Pocket Hercules".

At the 1988 Summer Olympics, Süleymanoğlu set multiple world records in the featherweight division in the snatch, clean and jerk, and total.

[4] He set a world weightlifting record during his teens[5][6] and would have been an overwhelming favorite to win gold at the 1984 Summer Olympics had Bulgaria not joined in a boycott by the Eastern Block.

[7] In the 1980s, Bulgaria's government implemented a program called the Revival Process which required ethnic minorities to adopt Slavic names and barred their languages.

[8] As a result, Süleymanoğlu was forced to change his name to Naum Shalamanov (Bulgarian: Наум Шаламанов) in 1985.

He decided to leave Bulgaria after these experiences and he conducted encrypted correspondence with Turkish Squad during the period.

[4][9] While on a trip to the World Cup Final in Melbourne in 1986, Süleymanoğlu escaped his handlers, and after several days in hiding, he defected at the Turkish Embassy in Canberra.

When Embassy officials reported the situation to Turgut Özal, The Prime Minister ordered him to be brought at once.

"[10] In order for Süleymanoğlu to compete at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the Bulgarian government had to agree to release his eligibility to Turkey.

He came out for the snatch portion of the competition after all other athletes had finished and made three consecutive lifts, setting world records in his last two attempts.

That competition was noted for the rivalry between Süleymanoğlu and Greece's Valerios Leonidis, with the arena divided into partisan Turkish and Greek crowds.

[4] At the 1999 general elections, Süleymanoğlu stood as an independent candidate to represent Bursa at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

Following his death, a Japanese woman had claimed that her daughter, Sekai Mori, had been fathered by him, and filed a paternity case at a Turkish court.