1936 Olympics
At the time, Eltouny had already set the world record for his weight class. The International Weightlifting Federation, however, did not recognize this as a world record; they claimed it was an impossible feat. They were forced to acknowledge this record when he successfully performed at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Crushing two German world champions at the time on their home soil, Eltouny broke then the Olympic and world records.
After winning the middleweight class gold medal, Eltouny continued to compete for another 45 minutes, finally exceeding the total of the German silver medalist by 35 kg. The 20-year-old Eltouny lifted a total of 387.5 kg, while the German lifted 352.5 kg. Furthermore, Eltouny had lifted 15 kg more than the heavyweight gold medalist, a feat only Eltouny has accomplished. Eltouny's new world records stood for thirteen years.
Fascinated by Eltouny's performance, Adolf Hitler, who was watching from the stands, rushed down to greet this human miracle. Prior to the competition, Hitler was said to have been sure that Rudolf Ismayr and Adolf Wagner would embarrass all other opponents. While awarding Eltouny with the gold medal, Hitler told him: 'Egypt should be proud of you. I wish you were German. I hope you consider Germany your second home'. Hitler was so impressed by his domination in the middleweight class that he ordered a street named after him in Berlin.
His achievement was recorded in the official book of the 1936 Olympics which is available in many libraries containing all the signatures of Golden medals carriers including his signature in Arabic
In recognition of his achievement, Hitler ordered that one of the streets in the Olympic Village of Berlin be named after Eltouny. In addition to the street in Berlin, Eltouny also had streets in Alexandria and Nasr City named after him in his home country of Egypt. Nearby his home in his final residential town of Helwan, a major square was also named after Eltouny. Besides the honorary streets and squares, Eltouny received a 1,000 L.E. cash bonus, as well as a free pass from the tramway company. Eltouny cashed in the policy in 1953 and built a house in Helwan which is still occupied by his wife Gamalat.
Read more about this topic: Khadr El Touni