‘Khalil the Eagle,’ Iran’s strong athletic man, dies at 98

Iranian athlete Khalil Tarighat-Peyma, whose name was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records for lifting a 2-ton elephant, has died at the age of 98.

Tarighat-Peyman, know as ‘Khalil the Eagle’ had been hospitalized for 36 days in an organ transplant hospital and died of old age, leaving the Iranian sports community in mourning.

Born in 1924 in Shiraz, he managed to lift a weight of 450 kg by teeth at the age of 30.
He emigrated to Ireland in 1971 at the invitation of the Faust circus. He then went to the UK’s Jerry Cattle Circus, where he lifted the elephant.

Tarighat-Peyman continued to perform athletic performances in more than 37 countries.

He returned to Iran in 1991 and opened a first circus in Iran with the participation of 60 artists from Italy, Romania and Portugal.

Among his other performances are letting a truck and a bus pass over his chest, placing a 2-ton stone on the chest and enduring hammer blows, bending 14 and 12 iron beams with the neck, and stopping two heavy army vehicles from moving.

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