by For nearly a decade, Morteza Mehrzadselakjani refused to leave her home in the Iranian town of Chalus on the Caspian Sea.
It was only in the protected sanctuary of his room, with its books and music, that he felt truly safe from the prying eyes of the locals and the cruelest taunts of his peers.
“I was so ashamed, I thought I was a monster,” he recalls.
Mehrzad, as he is known, has always been much taller than his schoolmates, due to a genetic condition called acromegaly, which triggers excessive production of growth hormones.
He was cycling home from school at the age of 13 when he suffered a nasty fall, fracturing his pelvis, complications that have limited the growth of his right leg, which is six inches shorter than his left.
At 2.45 metres (8 feet 10 inches), Mehrzad is the world’s second-tallest man and now arguably Iran’s most famous sports star, nicknamed “Lethal Weapon”.
Hitting balls from a seated height of nearly six feet, Mehrzad, 36, has become the ultimate impact player in the sport of sitting volleyball.
Played in teams of six players on a pitch measuring just 10 metres by six, Mehrzad is a menacing and intimidating presence for his rivals. When he comes off the bench, worried glances can be seen exchanged.
He inspired Iran to gold at the last two Paralympics and they booked their place in the semi-finals today with a resounding group stage win over Germany, with Egypt their next rivals in the last four.
“I appreciate being told I’m the best, but I’m not,” Mehrzhad said. “Each of us is the best team in the world.”
Coach Hadi Rezaeigarkani is responsible for Mehrzad’s integration into the Iranian team and has loyally shielded his painfully shy protégé from media attention at these Games, walking him past reporters with his eyes glued to the ground.
Three years ago in Tokyo, where Mehrzad was voted player of the tournament, the Japanese organizers had arranged a special bed for their guest in the athletes’ village. This time, he sleeps on the floor.
“He is a champion, he will not be distracted from his ambitions by such small things,” Rezaeigarkani said. “He has overcome a lot, where he sleeps is not a problem.
“People look at him, but the first thing they see is a champion. He is respected all over the world because of his game. Sport has given him everything, it has changed his life.”
It would be easy to dismiss Iran as a one-man team, but the statistics don’t bear that out. He’s a formidable weapon, but he’s also been used sparingly, spending a lot of time on the bench as Germany were swept aside in three sets.
Team-mate Hossein Golestani is the team’s top scorer in Paris and refutes suggestions that their seemingly inevitable run to a third title is down to just one player.
“We are 12 players, our team is made up of all of us, not one individual, we cannot win without the team,” he said.
“We all cooperated well and encouraged each other to play our best. Each of us has a common dream, to become champions again in this Paralympic competition. No matter who we play against or what people say, we only have one ambition. That’s it.”
Back home, Mehrzad’s matches are prime-time affairs, dominating the news and television coverage, in every way matching the attention given to Iran’s three gold medals at the recent Olympics.
Iran’s participation in Paris has been controversial. Its ban on women in certain sports is against the Olympic Charter, a fact that is indisputable but largely ignored. Two years ago, several athletes were executed in the crackdown on human rights protests that followed the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.
There is also the irony of seeing a team of amputees competing for a country that has a history of amputating people convicted of minor crimes. Just a few weeks ago, a man lost four digits on his right hand in Qom’s central prison after being accused of stealing five sheep from a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard.
This is not Mehrzad’s fight, and perhaps his involvement here shows those calling for bans and boycotts the other, more humane side of the story.
At every Games, we hear clichés about the power of sport to change lives. In the case of the world’s second-tallest man, those clichés prove true.
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