Morteza Mehrzadselakjani knows a thing or two about winning.
With two Paralympic gold medals to his name already, the Iranian is the not-so-secret weapon of his country’s men’s sitting volleyball team and is aiming for a three-peat at the 2024 Paris Games.
At two meters, 46 centimeters (eight-foot-one-inch) tall, Mehrzadselakjani – better known as Mehrzad – is the tallest Paralympian in history and the joint-second tallest man in the world.
The 36-year-old is a vital cog in Iran’s successful men’s sitting volleyball team, helping the team to back-to-back golds in Rio and then Tokyo.
But for one of the most dominant players in the sport, his route into competing wasn’t the most orthodox.
He only started playing sitting volleyball for the national team six months before the Rio Games after being spotted on a TV program.
Mehrzad was diagnosed with acromegaly at a young age – a condition causing excess growth hormone. As a teenager, a pelvis fracture caused by a bicycle accident stopped his right leg from growing, making it shorter than his left and making it difficult to walk.
Ahead of the Paris Games, Mehrzad spoke of the impact sitting volleyball has had on his life, saying that he “turned limitations into opportunities.”
“I have always been called the ‘tall boy’ even before joining the national team or the Paralympic Games,” he told AFP after a training session at Iran’s Sports Federation for the Disabled in Tehran.
“Playing sitting volleyball helped me a lot. The physique that I once considered as very bad has helped me in this game, and I could make good use of it.”
Sitting on the floor with his arms raised, Mehrzad reaches a height of over six feet, making him an invaluable asset on the volleyball court.
As well as the two Paralympic gold medals, he has also been named the sport’s best player in 2019, 2021 and 2022, per AFP.
However, he admitted that he feels uncomfortable receiving so much of the spotlight compared to his teammates.
“I appreciate being called the best in the game, but I’m not,” he said. “Each of our guys is the best … and we make the best team in the world.”
Mehrzad is a vital component in Iran’s recent success in sitting volleyball, although the nation has historically been dominant in the men’s format for years now.
Of the nine Paralympic Games since Seoul 1988, Iran has taken home the gold medal in seven of them.
This means that when Mehrzad and his teammates take to the court in Paris, the pressure to complete a three-peat and bring home another gold will be resting on their shoulders.
“Our biggest challenge is that Iranian people expect us to become champions, which puts a heavy responsibility on our athletes and coaches,” Iran’s head coach Rezaei told the International Paralympic Committee website.
“In some sports, winning a championship in Asia or participating in the Paralympics is an honor, but it seems in sitting volleyball, participation and championship have different criteria.
“The criterion is that if we achieve the second place in the Paralympic competitions, it means that we have failed.”
CNN’s George Ramsay contributed to this report.