Bahman Golbarnezhad (12 June 1968-17 September 2016) was an Iranian paralympic racing cyclist and Iran-Iraq War veteran who tragically died in a 2016 crash during the Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Biography[]
Bahman Golbarnezhad was born on 12 June 1968 in Abadan, Iran to a Shia Muslim family, and he joined the Artesh military of Iran during the Iran-Iraq War. Golbarnezhad lost his left leg when he stepped on an Iraqi mine in 1988, but he became a professional wrestler and weightlifter in 1991. He won 12 gold medals and one silver medal during his weightlifting career, but he turned to cycling in 2006 after a shoulder injury prevented him from continuing to lift weights competitively. In 2016, he became the only Iranian cyclist to compete in the Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, and he was injured when he hit his head on a rock while biking the mountainous belt of the bike race in Pontal. He died of cardiac arrest in the hospital, and his death was mourned by many; he was the first Olympian since 1960 to die in competition.