Bodybuilding Receives Boost With Tabrizi Visit
Mahmoud Ahmad, Arab News
All muscle and brawn: Ali Tabrizi displays his form. (AN photos by Salman Al-Marzouqi)
JEDDAH, 28 March 2008 — A heavyweight, literally and figuratively, walked into the posh Kai Fitness Center at Al-Hamra district here. Iranian-born Qatari national Ali Tabrizi, a three-time world bodybuilding champion, was in the Kingdom on a private visit last week. During his first visit to the country Tabrizi had the chance to perform Umrah in Makkah and visit the Grand Mosque in Madinah.
Kai Fitness Center owner Badr Al-Shebani invited Tabrizi as part of his efforts to promote bodybuilding in the Kingdom. Tabrizi was highly impressed with the state-of-the-art equipment at the center where, he said, “even professional bodybuilders would love to come and train.”
Tabrizi, in an interview with Arab News, said he was looking forward to the day when bodybuilding grows big in Saudi Arabia like it is now in Iran, which has produced some of the world’s famous bodybuilders.
Born in Mashad, Iran, the 35-year old Tabrizi, who owns impressive credentials as well as the most handsome body in Asia, took up the sport at the age of 16 and a year later won his first bodybuilding championship at school level. In 1997, he became a member of Iran’s national team and was the national champion for six consecutive years from 1997-2003. In 2003, he signed a contract with Qatar, and stayed on to become a citizen.
“My ambition exceeds far greater than what I had already achieved,” said Tabrizi. “My main target is to enter the professional level and when that happens, I will become the first man from the Gulf to be professional in this sport.”
Tabrizi is considered one of the most well-known sport personalities in Iran. He has a huge following in his native country and a big bodybuilding club in Tehran. He said, “This sport is highly popular in Iran and it is improving now especially after the bodybuilding federation separated from the weightlifting federation.
In Tehran there are over 1,300 bodybuilding clubs and there are 4 million bodybuilders in Iran as a whole.”
He said the reason there are no known names in this sport in the international level is that there was no support for the players or internal programs for this sport. There are only internal competitions.
He predicts Iran to make a huge impact on the international level because there are programs that care for bodybuilders and prepare them for the Asian and international level. As for Qatar, he said ever since Muhammad Yousuf Al-Manie became head of the bodybuilding federation in 2002 things improved dramatically in Qatar.
He said, “He has a vision for the sport. In 2003, he imported experienced people in this sport and professional trainers with long experience. It is because of Al-Manie’s vision that Qatar is the best in this sport in the Gulf level and only Egypt is competing with Qatar in the Arab level. He started to organize training camps inside and outside Qatar and supported all the players financially.” One of the reasons why the sport is not popular in the Gulf is that so much money is being poured to other sports such as football and volleyball. He defended the idea of giving citizenship to champions because they help spur the growth of the sport domestically.
He said that he was recruited by Qatar along with the Libyan champion Kamal Abdul Salam to represent the country in Asian and international level. After they achieved some good results, many Qatari youths began taking up the sport, with more bodybuilding centers built and people became more aware of the sport.
“Saudi Arabia should bring some superstars to this sport so they could promote it and compete using Saudi names and attract more people to the sport,” he said. Tabrizi said in bodybuilding the genetic and physical appearance of the player weighs heavily whether one has the potential to become a bodybuilder or not.
“Out of one thousand players, maybe one is fit to become a bodybuilding champion,” he said. Tabrizi is joining the professional federation soon after his contract with the Qatari federation ends. He said that since he is Iranian-born, he could not forget Iran but that he would compete under the colors of the Qatari flag because of what Qatar did for him.
While winning championships in the Asian and Gulf levels, Tabrizi managed to also claim world titles in 2003, 2005 and 2006. He competes in the 85 to 90kg weight category.
