When the decisive spike smashed off the Egyptian defence to seal Iranian victory in their sitting volleyball semi-final it was fitting it should be delivered by Morteza Mehrzad; their not-so secret weapon, he is also the world’s second-tallest man.
Mehrzad, 36, is 8ft 1in tall. He was born with gigantism and also uses a wheelchair after a bike accident as a teenager caused an injury that stopped his right leg from growing. When the ball is served in his sport he must push his head down to keep it under the cord of the net.
When he arrived at the Paralympic village in Paris he was forced to sleep on the floor because there was not a bed big enough for him. He is shy, disliking the attention his condition brings, and when he plays on the court he rarely smiles. You could be forgiven for feeling sorry for him.
And yet, when his coach Hadi Rezaei talks about Mehrzad, he says that working with him has been “one of the most important things I have done during my whole life”.
And it is Mehrzad who will bring the attention of the Iranian nation, and of a global audience too, to this sport and the final against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday. While he may not smile much, there is no doubting the passion Mehrzad has for his sport; in the decisive fourth set of a 3-1 victory, he dominated play and celebrated each point he won with two pumping fists.
This is Rezaei’s seventh Paralympic Games as the coach of Iran’s sitting volleyball team, leading them to four gold medals in that time. He was also a player before that, winning gold three times in Seoul, Barcelona and Atlanta. So the legend has it, he learned of Mehrzad and his exceptional height after the young man featured in a programme on Iranian TV. Rezaei reached out to him and encouraged him to try out sitting volleyball. Mehrzad, Rezaei says, had been living in seclusion. “He had been isolated from the population,” he says. “I was able to bring him into society.”
Mehrzad developed his skills under Rezaei’s tutelage and duly became a potent ingredient in Iran’s recurring success. An outside hitter, it is Mehrzad’s job to finish off the fast paced, intricate passing moves that are a requirement of the sport. He has the awareness and the power, and his height gives him leverage. Since coming into the Iranian squad for the Rio Games, he has won two gold medals, with a chance of a third on Friday.
Rezaei chose to rotate his star player in and out of the side in the semi-final, conscious of protecting him against injury. That said, Iran are hardly a one-man band and neither are they short on players of grand stature. The way the Egyptian players celebrated every point they won showed how much respect they had for their opponents.
Iran now go on to face rivals Bosnia and Herzegovina, a team they defeated in the final of the world championships two years ago. “I would like to let you know that tomorrow, all people all around the world will be able to watch one of the most important games,” Rezaei said. “The disabled athletes will be able to show their ability and capability, and let’s see what they can do. But if I win the match or am just a finalist it will be my great pleasure to be there, I will be more than happy.”
The issue of Mehrzad’s bed also appears to have been resolved. In Tokyo he had a bed custom-made for him but in Paris, International Paralympic Committee officials had told the Iran team that they would instead provide extensions to a standard athlete’s bed. This proved insufficient and resulted in Mehrzad sleeping on the floor, information Rezaei revealed in an interview with Olympics.com.
He insisted his athlete would cope despite the conditions, but it provoked media interest and it appears that an inquiry by the BBC children’s programme Newsround led the IPC to return to the problem. After the semi-final, Rezaei was able to confirm that his star now has a bed that fits him. “The problem has been solved,” he said.
