Iran at the 2016 Summer Olympics

Iran at the 2016 Summer Olympics
IOC code	IRI
NOC	National Olympic Committee of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Website	www.olympic.ir (in Persian and English)
in Rio de Janeiro
Competitors	63 in 15 sports
Flag bearer	Zahra Nemati[1]
Medals Ranked 24th	Gold 3 Silver 1 Bronze 4 Total 8
Summer Olympics appearances (overview)
1900 1904–1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980–1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024

Iran (officially the Islamic Republic of Iran) competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, from 5 to 21 August 2016. Since the nation's return in 1948 after having made their debut in 1900, Iranian athletes had attended in every Summer Olympic Games of the modern era, with the exception of the 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics.

The National Olympic Committee of the Islamic Republic of Iran fielded a team of 63 athletes, 54 men and 9 women, across 15 sports at the Games.^[2] It was the nation's second-largest delegation sent to the Olympics, and featured Iran's highest female participation in history. Men's volleyball was the only team-based sport in which Iran was represented at the Games, the nation's Olympic debut.^[3] Wrestling accounted for the largest number of athletes by an individual-based sport with 12 entries; there was only a single competitor each in archery, boxing, flatwater canoeing, rowing, and swimming.

The Iranian roster featured a number of past Olympic medalists, including discus thrower Ehsan Haddadi, who won the nation's first ever athletics medal with a silver, and four defending champions from London: weightlifter Behdad Salimi, and Greco-Roman wrestlers Hamid Sourian, Omid Norouzi, and Ghasem Rezaei. Other notable Iranian athletes included table tennis player Noshad Alamian and his younger brother Nima in the men's singles, rifle shooter and London 2012 finalist Elaheh Ahmadi, and paraplegic archer Zahra Nemati, who significantly became the nation's first ever female athlete to earn an Olympic or Paralympic title four years earlier.^[4] Consequently, Nemati's story and sporting success prompted her to lead the Iranian delegation as the nation's third female flag bearer in Olympic history during the opening ceremony.^[1]

Iran left Rio de Janeiro with a total of 8 medals (3 gold, 1 silver, and 4 bronze), finishing twenty-fourth in the overall standings.^[5] Five of these medals were awarded to the team in wrestling, two in weightlifting, and one in taekwondo. Among the nation's medalists were taekwondo fighter Kimia Alizadeh, who became the first Iranian woman to stand on the podium by taking the bronze, and weightlifter Kianoush Rostami, who bested his runner-up feat from London, lifting a new world record for gold in the men's 85 kg category.^{[citation needed]}