Word: ghaffari
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...Back in Tehran, the reformists' campaign slogans revolve around pain and perseverance, while the conservatives paint bright horizons. Passing a reformists' election poster in Tehran's 7th Tir Square, Mehrdad Ghaffari, 21, an electrical engineering student is asked whether he'll vote. "These elections have nothing to do with us," he says. "Most of the representatives are already chosen anyway...
...national hero, Karelin enjoys advantages unknown to other athletes. "There's not another wrestler in the world who travels with a helicopter and a massager and two or three doctors and coaches," declares Ghaffari, who says he and Karelin regard each other with mutual respect. Small wonder that when Russian President Vladimir Putin's Unity Party needed a boost last year, it picked Karelin to run for a legislative seat. Today the wrestler denies rumors that he wants to be President. "It's a totally different level of responsibility," he says, "and I am not ready for it." Just running...
...just what--besides massive size--makes him virtually invincible on the mat? First and foremost, says Mitch Hull, national teams director for U.S. wrestling, "he's maybe inhumanly strong." American wrestler Matt Ghaffari, 38, who has spent his career trying to defeat Karelin, can unhappily vouch for that. In Atlanta the 6-ft. 4-in., 286-lb. Ghaffari wept in frustration on the silver-medal stand after he extended Karelin into overtime, but still lost. "I wrestled my heart and soul out," he says. His performance was so moving that he is now sought as a motivational speaker...
...scores. "I truly think he's beatable," says Steve Fraser, national coach of the U.S. Greco-Roman team and a light-heavyweight gold medalist in 1984. Fraser says Rulon Gardner, America's No. 1 super heavyweight, will try to outwork Karelin and exhaust him on his feet. (Ghaffari is an alternate...