The Tehran Times is reporting that Kianoush Rostami has been kicked off the Iranian weightlifting national team. Rostami won the 85kg weight category at the 2016 Rio Olympics and set a world record total (396kg).
Sajjad Anoushiravani, Iran’s national team coach, said, “Rostami has been dropped from the national team after not participating in the training. He will not a member of our team in the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games in Baku in May. Rostami has been also dropped from the national team in the 2017 Asian Weightlifting Championship.”
In an interesting twist, Rostami was just voted the IWF Men’s Best Lifter of the Year award. Rostami had nearly three times the number of votes than runner-up, Lasha Talakhadzeof Georgia.
Rostami has reportedly been training without a coach and has trained alone over the past year.
