Hamid Sajjadi
Hamid Sajjadi Hazaveh was the Minister of Sport and Youths of Iran, from August 25, 2021 to August 1, 2023. He is also an Iranian retired middle distance and long distance runner. He represented Iran at the 1992 Summer Olympics and 1996 Summer Olympics. Sajjadi holds multiple indoor and outdoor national track records for Iran. On February 23, 2023, his helicopter crashed while visiting Baft county. He survived from accident, but his deputy was killed.
Running career
Sajjadi ran the men's 5,000 m race at the 1992 Summer Olympics, although he did not qualify past the preliminaries with a time of 14:04.54. Sajjadi also ran the men's 10,000 metres at the 1996 Summer Olympics, finishing in 29:22.65. Throughout the 1990s, he was a prolific steeplechaser, specializing in the 3000 metres steeplechase in which he finished in first place at the 1991 Asian Athletics Championships.
Sajjadi has a PhD in physiology and is also a lecturer at Azad University. He was at one point nominated by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be Iran's sports minister, but he never took up the job. He is currently number two of the Iranian sport organization.