VILLEPINTE, France — The world’s second-tallest man parked his wheelchair at the edge of the court and climbed to his feet as Iran’s national anthem began to play over the loudspeakers. Morteza Mehrzadselakjani stood 8-foot-1, his right hand placed over his heart, his left arm draped around a teammate’s shoulder below to help him keep his balance.
By Roman Stubbs
When it was finally time for his team to begin its Paralympic sitting volleyball match against Brazil at North Paris Arena on Sunday, Mehrzadselakjani returned to the position that has struck fear into his opponents for years. He took a seat on the floor.
His eyes hovered above the net, and underneath it, his right leg extended past an opponent on the other side. Within a few minutes, he unleashed powerful strikes against the other team, and Iran needed just over an hour to win in straight sets and secure a spot in the semifinals.
There is no other athlete quite like Mehrzadselakjani in Paris for these Paralympics. In his room at the Athletes’ Village, he does not have a bed that fits his frame, so he has opted to sleep on the floor, according to his coach. On the court, it is nearly impossible for opposing teams to prepare for his height or counter his spikes. He rarely speaks to the media — he didn’t stop to talk with reporters after his first two matches here — and resists any spotlight as Iran chases a third consecutive gold medal. For years, he lived in seclusion in a coastal city in the northern part of the country, only to become a celebrity in Iran once he found his sport.
“If you go back to Morteza when he was 12 years old, no one had any consideration [for him],” his coach, Hadi Rezaeigarkani, said through an interpreter. “But when he became a sitting volleyball player, everyone, all around the world, know him and respect him. ... I believe that each person has got potential in the world, and we have to discover it.”
Even before Mehrzadselakjani, 36, joined the national team nearly a decade ago, the Iran sitting volleyball program owned one of the foremost dynasties at the Paralympics. It has won seven of the past nine gold medals since 1988, with silver medals coming in Athens in 2004 and London in 2012. Year after year it dominates international competitions, including eight world championships since 1984.
Rezaeigarkani was a star player himself beginning in the early 1980s, appearing in three Paralympics and becoming a captain on the team before becoming the coach. He discovered Mehrzadselakjani in 2011, watching as the player went on a television show in Iran that features people with physical impairments and unusual talents.
Mehrzadselakjani has acromegaly, a rare hormonal disorder caused by excessive growth hormone production. As a teenager, he was injured in a bike accident that slowed the growth of his right leg, which is about six inches shorter than his left.
After Rezaeigarkani watched the segment, he called the network to inquire about its guest. He got in touch and invited Mehrzadselakjani to try the sport. The coach said Mehrzadselakjani at that point had spent “11 years in his room, in his house, without any attention.”
“But because he is the tallest man, when he wanted to leave the home and come outside, unfortunately, he was not satisfied because so many people [stared at] him,” Rezaeigarkani said.
Rezaeigarkani had watched as other teams around the world added taller players to their rosters to gain an advantage in recent years, but few could disrupt Mehrzadselakjani on a court that measures just six meters long (about 19 feet) and 10 meters wide (about 32 feet). Sitting volleyball has the same principles as its Olympic equivalent; the players’ buttocks or back must always stay in contact with the floor, and they slide into position using their hands and arms.
Even sitting down, Mehrzadselakjani still measures over six feet tall with his arms raised. At the peak of his fingertips, he can block shots at more than seven feet. His highest spike reach is 7 feet 5 inches; that didn’t bode well Sunday for Brazil, another traditional power in the sport whose tallest player’s block reach measured about 5-3.
Brazil tried to maneuver around him — constant movement and communication is key in sitting volleyball — to try to keep the ball away from his outstretched limbs. It was largely ineffective.
“Attacking and defending Morteza is very difficult,” said Brazil captain Renato Leite, who has been competing against Mehrzadselakjani for nearly a decade.
Leite said his team can game-plan for the other players on Iran’s team but not for Mehrzadselakjani, who pelted his opponents with spikes and scored nine points on his own.
In one exchange, he got a little too antsy, stretching his arm over the net to block a shot. He thought he had scored, but an official ruled it was a violation and awarded the point to Brazil. A few moments later, Mehrzadselakjani took out his frustration with a legal shot — he smashed a ball from the air that bounced off an opponent’s shoulder and to the floor for a point.
“He is a very good player. He is very difficult to defend with his attack because it is very high,” Leite said. “He’s not the best player in the world, but he is the most difficult to defend.”
Masoud Hossein, a sports journalist at the Tehran Times, has been covering Mehrzadselakjani for nearly a decade and said the television interview he gave in 2011 “changed his life.” He came out of seclusion and joined a club to learn how to play the sport; before the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016, as Iran was preparing to avenge its rare silver medal in London, he was called up to the national team. He has grown as a player through his experience, Hossein said, which included being named the MVP and best spiker at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
“He has played a key role in inspiring people with disability in Iran,” Hossein said, “and maybe in the world.”
In the four decades since he became an international player and then a coach, Rezaeigarkani has worked to grow the game of sitting volleyball and hopes Mehrzadselakjani will bring a new generation of players to the sport.
His most famous player is most comfortable on the floor. He said that Mehrzadselakjani had a special bed at the Athletes’ Village during the run to gold in Tokyo but that he would not be bothered by his sleeping on the floor in Paris. The only concern is winning a third straight Paralympic title.
“He doesn’t have a special bed, but he has got the most important aim in his mind. It doesn’t matter for him whether he will lay on the floor or he’s not going to have enough to eat,” Rezaeigarkani said. “In any way, he has the mind to become a champion.”
