WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.200 Imagine the sound for a second, that distinct 00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:07.700 rhythmic thumping of rotor blades just cutting 00:00:07.700 --> 00:00:09.880 through the air. It's loud. Right, it's loud. 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:11.640 It's vibrating right in your chest. The date 00:00:11.640 --> 00:00:16.059 is February 23, 2023, and you are in Baft County. 00:00:16.300 --> 00:00:21.100 Which is this really rugged, mountainous region 00:00:21.100 --> 00:00:23.839 down in the Kerman province of Iran. Exactly. 00:00:23.899 --> 00:00:25.719 It's not a place you just stumble upon, right? 00:00:25.820 --> 00:00:27.960 You go there with a purpose. And the purpose 00:00:27.960 --> 00:00:30.309 here was... High -level government business. 00:00:30.589 --> 00:00:33.409 This wasn't some tourism flight or a joyride. 00:00:33.670 --> 00:00:36.170 You have a helicopter coming in for a landing 00:00:36.170 --> 00:00:38.490 at a sports complex. Carrying top -tier officials. 00:00:38.850 --> 00:00:40.750 Right, exactly. Officials who are there to inspect 00:00:40.750 --> 00:00:43.070 infrastructure, which is the kind of routine 00:00:43.070 --> 00:00:45.609 trip that happens, I mean, a thousand times a 00:00:45.609 --> 00:00:47.850 year in governments all over the world. Until 00:00:47.850 --> 00:00:50.149 in a split second it isn't routine anymore? Yeah. 00:00:50.429 --> 00:00:52.170 The helicopter is on its final approach. It's 00:00:52.170 --> 00:00:54.509 just about to touch down and then chaos. Something 00:00:54.509 --> 00:00:57.070 fails. The stability goes and the machine just 00:00:57.070 --> 00:00:59.829 crashes into the ground. It's a mess of twisted 00:00:59.829 --> 00:01:02.630 metal dust confusion. It's terrifying. The impact 00:01:02.630 --> 00:01:05.750 is completely catastrophic. It's severe enough 00:01:05.750 --> 00:01:08.370 that a top deputy, a man named Esmail Ahmadi, 00:01:08.450 --> 00:01:11.790 is killed instantly. It is a tragedy by every 00:01:11.790 --> 00:01:14.329 definition of the word. It's a harrowing image. 00:01:14.590 --> 00:01:17.510 Yeah. And usually, you know, when we see a headline 00:01:17.510 --> 00:01:20.230 like minister involved in helicopter crash. Yeah. 00:01:20.310 --> 00:01:23.010 The narrative is very specific. Oh, sure. We 00:01:23.010 --> 00:01:25.030 think about the political fallout, the succession 00:01:25.030 --> 00:01:27.650 plans, the bureaucracy of it all. We picture 00:01:27.650 --> 00:01:30.310 these men in suits who spend their entire lives 00:01:30.310 --> 00:01:32.870 in air conditioned offices. Yeah. But in this 00:01:32.870 --> 00:01:35.530 specific instance, the man they pulled out of 00:01:35.530 --> 00:01:38.310 that wreckage alive but badly injured wasn't 00:01:38.310 --> 00:01:41.060 your typical bureaucrat. That is the understatement 00:01:41.060 --> 00:01:43.579 of the year. The survivor was Hamid Sejati. And 00:01:43.579 --> 00:01:45.739 the reason we are doing a deep dive on him today 00:01:45.739 --> 00:01:48.459 isn't just because he survived a crash. It's 00:01:48.459 --> 00:01:50.599 because if you look at his life surviving a massive 00:01:50.599 --> 00:01:53.120 physical trauma, like that almost seems thematic. 00:01:53.140 --> 00:01:54.900 We aren't just looking at a politician here. 00:01:55.159 --> 00:01:57.579 We are looking at a man who has lived three completely 00:01:57.579 --> 00:02:00.939 distinct high intensity lives. It is a fascinating 00:02:00.939 --> 00:02:03.840 Venn diagram. You have the Olympic athlete who 00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:06.379 absolutely dominated the Asian continent for 00:02:06.379 --> 00:02:09.430 a decade. Then you have the Ph .D. scholar who 00:02:09.430 --> 00:02:11.849 didn't just play sports but literally studied 00:02:11.849 --> 00:02:14.330 the cellular biology of the human engine. Yeah. 00:02:14.490 --> 00:02:16.370 And finally, you have the minister of sport and 00:02:16.370 --> 00:02:20.169 youth. It's so rare to find someone who embodies 00:02:20.169 --> 00:02:22.909 the subject matter of their ministry so literally. 00:02:23.580 --> 00:02:25.939 So here's our mission for this deep dive. We 00:02:25.939 --> 00:02:28.419 are going to unpack the life of Hamid Sajjadi, 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:30.180 but we're framing it through a very specific 00:02:30.180 --> 00:02:33.639 lens, which is endurance. We want to figure out 00:02:33.639 --> 00:02:36.460 how a guy goes from the grueling 10 ,000 meter 00:02:36.460 --> 00:02:39.240 track to the halls of government. And whether 00:02:39.240 --> 00:02:41.520 the discipline required to break physical records 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:44.340 helps or hinders you when you're navigating the 00:02:44.340 --> 00:02:46.740 complex waters of politics. Exactly. It's the 00:02:46.740 --> 00:02:48.800 ultimate case study of the practitioner politician. 00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:52.060 Does being the absolute best at doing the thing 00:02:52.060 --> 00:02:54.770 make you the best? at governing the thing. That 00:02:54.770 --> 00:02:56.449 is the question. Let's start at the beginning. 00:02:56.650 --> 00:02:58.430 Or rather, let's start at the starting line. 00:02:58.669 --> 00:03:02.129 Because long before he was His Excellency, he 00:03:02.129 --> 00:03:05.789 was simply Sajjadi the runner. And looking at 00:03:05.789 --> 00:03:07.770 the stack of research we've pulled, calling him 00:03:07.770 --> 00:03:10.389 a runner feels like calling a Ferrari a car. 00:03:10.689 --> 00:03:12.830 It's a bit reductive, isn't it? To really understand 00:03:12.830 --> 00:03:15.330 Sajjadi, you have to understand his specific 00:03:15.330 --> 00:03:18.969 event. Because he was a prolific middle and long 00:03:18.969 --> 00:03:21.949 distance runner. But his signature, his absolute 00:03:21.949 --> 00:03:25.169 kingdom, was the 3 ,000 -meter steeplechase. 00:03:25.289 --> 00:03:27.330 Okay, stop right there. Because for you listening 00:03:27.330 --> 00:03:29.330 who maybe watches the Olympics once every four 00:03:29.330 --> 00:03:31.789 years and uses the track events as a designated 00:03:31.789 --> 00:03:34.710 snack break, we need to explain the steeplechase. 00:03:35.330 --> 00:03:38.360 Because it is a weird, weird race. It is arguably 00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:40.520 the most disruptive, rhythm -breaking event in 00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:42.439 all of track and field. Think about a normal 00:03:42.439 --> 00:03:45.060 5K or a 10K. It's hypnotic. Left foot, right 00:03:45.060 --> 00:03:46.800 foot, breathe. Exactly. You get into a zone. 00:03:46.900 --> 00:03:49.639 The steeplechase destroys that zone. It's 3 ,000 00:03:49.639 --> 00:03:52.439 meters, but you have to clear 28 large fixed 00:03:52.439 --> 00:03:55.099 barriers and 7 water jumps. And when you say 00:03:55.099 --> 00:03:57.159 barriers, we aren't talking about those lightweight 00:03:57.159 --> 00:03:59.560 plastic hurdles that sprinters just kind of knock 00:03:59.560 --> 00:04:01.639 over if they clip them? Oh, no, no. These are 00:04:01.639 --> 00:04:05.780 heavy, solid beams. They are immovable objects. 00:04:06.020 --> 00:04:08.960 If you hit your knee on one one, the barrier 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:11.360 doesn't move. Your knee breaks. Wow. And then 00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:13.400 there's the water jump. You clear the hurdle 00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:16.759 and land directly in a pit of water. So now immediately 00:04:16.759 --> 00:04:19.779 your shoes are wet. They're heavy. Your socks 00:04:19.779 --> 00:04:23.720 are squishing. That sounds miserable. The temperature 00:04:23.720 --> 00:04:25.899 of your muscles changes instantly from the cold 00:04:25.899 --> 00:04:28.089 water. And you have to do this lap after lap. 00:04:28.290 --> 00:04:30.250 It honestly sounds like a medieval torture device 00:04:30.250 --> 00:04:32.490 that someone disguised as a sport. It's controlled 00:04:32.490 --> 00:04:35.689 suffering. And it requires a very specific physiology. 00:04:36.329 --> 00:04:38.709 You need the aerobic engine of a marathoner to 00:04:38.709 --> 00:04:41.029 actually run the distance. But you need the explosive 00:04:41.029 --> 00:04:43.899 power of a hurdler to clear. those solid barriers. 00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:46.459 Right. And the agility to recover your stride 00:04:46.459 --> 00:04:49.459 immediately upon landing. It breaks your rhythm 00:04:49.459 --> 00:04:51.839 constantly. And Sajjadi wasn't just participating 00:04:51.839 --> 00:04:54.660 in this torture. He was arguably the best in 00:04:54.660 --> 00:04:57.259 Asia at it for the entire 1990s. Let's look at 00:04:57.259 --> 00:04:59.079 the gold standard here. I'm looking at the notes. 00:04:59.139 --> 00:05:02.220 1991 Asian Athletics Championships in Kuala Lumpur. 00:05:02.360 --> 00:05:04.839 That was the big breakout. He takes the gold 00:05:04.839 --> 00:05:08.160 in the 3 ,000 meter steeplechase. But what is 00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:11.160 fascinating to me. isn't the single win. In sports, 00:05:11.180 --> 00:05:12.959 you see flash in the pan athletes all the time, 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:15.300 right? They have one great summer. Exactly. But 00:05:15.300 --> 00:05:18.819 Sojati, he was a fixture. He medaled at the Asian 00:05:18.819 --> 00:05:22.040 Championships in 1993 in Manila, then again in 00:05:22.040 --> 00:05:26.329 1995 in Jakarta, then 1998 in Fukuoka. and 2000 00:05:26.329 --> 00:05:29.250 in Jakarta again. That is a 10 -year reign. That 00:05:29.250 --> 00:05:33.230 is a full decade of dominance. It is. In a sport 00:05:33.230 --> 00:05:35.629 that literally pounds your joints into dust, 00:05:35.810 --> 00:05:37.949 I mean, the impact forces in steeplechase are 00:05:37.949 --> 00:05:40.910 massive. When you land in that water pit, staying 00:05:40.910 --> 00:05:42.930 on the podium for a full decade is a complete 00:05:42.930 --> 00:05:45.639 anomaly. It speaks to a level of physical maintenance 00:05:45.639 --> 00:05:48.139 and discipline that is just off the charts. And 00:05:48.139 --> 00:05:50.199 he wasn't a one trick pony either. No, he grabbed 00:05:50.199 --> 00:05:53.240 a gold at the 1993 Asian Cross Country Championships 00:05:53.240 --> 00:05:55.699 in Jakarta, too. So put him on a synthetic track, 00:05:55.860 --> 00:05:57.519 put him in the mud, put him over barriers. The 00:05:57.519 --> 00:05:59.879 guy was winning. He also took silver at the 1998 00:05:59.879 --> 00:06:02.519 Asian Games in Bangkok. So purely on the continental 00:06:02.519 --> 00:06:05.060 level within Asia, he was a titan. He was the 00:06:05.060 --> 00:06:06.699 guy everyone else was looking at when they lined 00:06:06.699 --> 00:06:08.819 up at the starting line. However, and this is 00:06:08.819 --> 00:06:10.459 where we really have to be realistic about the 00:06:10.459 --> 00:06:13.959 tiers of elite sport. there is often a massive, 00:06:14.040 --> 00:06:17.540 massive gap between regional dominance and the 00:06:17.540 --> 00:06:20.040 global stage. Right, the Olympics, the big show. 00:06:20.379 --> 00:06:22.839 Sajjadi did make it, though. He represented Iran 00:06:22.839 --> 00:06:26.399 at two Summer Olympics. Barcelona in 1992 and 00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:29.839 Atlanta in 1996. And this is where the reality 00:06:29.839 --> 00:06:32.360 of the pyramid sort of sets in. In Barcelona, 00:06:32.519 --> 00:06:35.500 he ran the 5 ,000 meters. His time was 14 minutes 00:06:35.500 --> 00:06:38.319 and 4 .54 seconds. Now I want to pause on that 00:06:38.319 --> 00:06:40.800 number for a second. 14 minutes, 4 seconds. Because 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:43.050 to the average... person that sounds fast but 00:06:43.050 --> 00:06:46.009 let's contextualize it if i go to my local gym 00:06:46.009 --> 00:06:48.370 and set the treadmill to its absolute maximum 00:06:48.370 --> 00:06:51.189 speed i'm probably not hitting that pace oh absolutely 00:06:51.189 --> 00:06:53.350 not you'd fly off the back immediately running 00:06:53.350 --> 00:06:55.769 five kilometers in 14 minutes is blistering it's 00:06:55.769 --> 00:06:57.470 under three minutes per kilometer most people 00:06:57.470 --> 00:07:00.550 can't sprint that fast for one block no way but 00:07:00.550 --> 00:07:04.899 in the context of the olympics in barcelona It 00:07:04.899 --> 00:07:06.779 wasn't enough to get past the preliminaries. 00:07:06.839 --> 00:07:08.720 That is wild to me. You can be the fastest man 00:07:08.720 --> 00:07:10.699 in Asia, run a pace that would kill a normal 00:07:10.699 --> 00:07:12.939 person, and still not even make the final. It 00:07:12.939 --> 00:07:14.920 really highlights just how steep the competition 00:07:14.920 --> 00:07:17.339 is at that global level, especially against the 00:07:17.339 --> 00:07:20.079 East African runners, the Kenyans, the Ethiopians, 00:07:20.139 --> 00:07:22.600 who have historically just owned these distances. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:28.040 Then in 1996, in Atlanta, Sashadi stepped up 00:07:28.040 --> 00:07:30.899 to the 10 ,000 meters. The 10K. 25 laps, the 00:07:30.899 --> 00:07:33.060 track. It's a total grind. He finished with a 00:07:33.060 --> 00:07:36.519 time of 29 minutes and 22 .65 seconds. Sub 30 00:07:36.519 --> 00:07:38.660 minutes for a 10K. I mean, that is the holy grail 00:07:38.660 --> 00:07:41.639 for serious runners. It is an elite time. Breaking 00:07:41.639 --> 00:07:43.560 the 30 -minute barrier is a lifetime achievement 00:07:43.560 --> 00:07:46.759 for even semi -pro athletes. But again, no medal. 00:07:47.060 --> 00:07:48.699 However, we really have to look at this from 00:07:48.699 --> 00:07:50.980 the Iranian perspective. Because for his country... 00:07:51.160 --> 00:07:52.860 He was an absolute legend. He holds multiple 00:07:52.860 --> 00:07:55.139 indoor and outdoor national track records for 00:07:55.139 --> 00:07:57.000 Iran. Yeah, I have some of those stats here just 00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:59.680 for color. His personal best in the 1500 meters 00:07:59.680 --> 00:08:02.959 is 3 minutes and 41 .66 seconds. And for his 00:08:02.959 --> 00:08:04.959 signature event, the steeplechase, he clocked 00:08:04.959 --> 00:08:08.279 8 minutes and 33 .89 seconds. These are numbers 00:08:08.279 --> 00:08:11.019 that stood as benchmarks. They really are. So 00:08:11.019 --> 00:08:13.720 by the late 90s, he has proven his physical endurance. 00:08:14.300 --> 00:08:16.620 He basically has nothing left to prove on the 00:08:16.620 --> 00:08:19.139 track. And usually this is the part of the sports 00:08:19.139 --> 00:08:21.500 biography where the athlete retires. Right. They 00:08:21.500 --> 00:08:24.139 open a car dealership or a shoe store. Yeah, 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:25.759 maybe they start a training camp or they become 00:08:25.759 --> 00:08:28.959 a TV commentator. The physical prime ends and 00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:30.439 they just sort of coast on their reputation. 00:08:30.740 --> 00:08:32.759 But for Sajjadi, this was just the end of Act 00:08:32.759 --> 00:08:34.779 One. And this is where I think the story gets 00:08:34.779 --> 00:08:36.759 really interesting, especially for anyone listening 00:08:36.759 --> 00:08:40.179 who has gone through a major career pivot. He 00:08:40.179 --> 00:08:42.519 didn't just retire. He pivoted to the library. 00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:44.779 He went deep into academia. And he didn't go 00:08:44.779 --> 00:08:47.000 for a soft degree just to have letters after 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:50.100 his name. He earned a Ph .D. in physiology. A 00:08:50.100 --> 00:08:53.220 Ph .D. So he goes from using his body to break 00:08:53.220 --> 00:08:56.080 records to studying exactly how that body functions 00:08:56.080 --> 00:08:59.139 at a cellular level. Why is that specific field 00:08:59.139 --> 00:09:01.600 significant? Why not sports management or business? 00:09:01.940 --> 00:09:04.519 Because physiology is the mechanics of the machine. 00:09:04.639 --> 00:09:07.360 It's the study of how living organisms actually 00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:12.200 function. By choosing this field, Sajjadi was 00:09:12.200 --> 00:09:14.500 signaling that he wanted to understand the why 00:09:14.500 --> 00:09:17.600 behind his own success. He wasn't satisfied just 00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:20.320 knowing how to run. He wanted to understand VO2 00:09:20.320 --> 00:09:23.360 max lactic acid thresholds, cardiac remodeling, 00:09:23.419 --> 00:09:25.960 and how the body handles heat stress. He became 00:09:25.960 --> 00:09:28.679 a lecturer at Azad University, specifically at 00:09:28.679 --> 00:09:31.360 the Central Tehran branch. I just have to imagine 00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:34.019 walking into your physiology class as a 19 -year 00:09:34.019 --> 00:09:36.639 -old student, and your professor is a two -time 00:09:36.639 --> 00:09:39.000 Olympian who holds the national record. You'd 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:40.379 probably listen when he tells you about lung 00:09:40.379 --> 00:09:42.860 capacity. It certainly adds a huge layer of authority. 00:09:43.259 --> 00:09:45.500 It's the difference between theory and practice. 00:09:45.980 --> 00:09:48.220 When he lectures on respiratory distress during 00:09:48.220 --> 00:09:50.639 high -intensity interval training, he isn't quoting 00:09:50.639 --> 00:09:52.960 a textbook he read. He's remembering the exact 00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:54.879 feeling of his lungs burning in the humidity 00:09:54.879 --> 00:09:57.740 of Kuala Lumpur back in 91. So we have the athlete 00:09:57.740 --> 00:09:59.759 and we have the scholar. Now we enter Act III, 00:09:59.960 --> 00:10:02.820 the statesman, the political arena. And this 00:10:02.820 --> 00:10:05.580 transition suggests a very technocratic approach 00:10:05.580 --> 00:10:09.059 to leadership. It implies that when he eventually 00:10:09.059 --> 00:10:11.980 moves into administration, he isn't just a figurehead. 00:10:12.379 --> 00:10:14.960 He actually understands the biological reality 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:17.419 of what an athlete goes through. Right. He knows 00:10:17.419 --> 00:10:19.840 the science of recovery, of training, loads of 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:23.039 injury prevention. He's looking at the athletes 00:10:23.039 --> 00:10:25.639 not just as national assets or medal counts, 00:10:25.759 --> 00:10:28.299 but as physiological systems that really need 00:10:28.299 --> 00:10:30.419 to be maintained. But getting into the minister's 00:10:30.419 --> 00:10:33.419 chair wasn't a straight sprint for him. It was, 00:10:33.419 --> 00:10:35.340 well, it was a bit like the steeplechase again. 00:10:35.399 --> 00:10:38.049 He hit a barrier early on. That's a good way 00:10:38.049 --> 00:10:39.529 to put it. He had a false start in politics. 00:10:39.990 --> 00:10:42.429 He was actually nominated previously by former 00:10:42.429 --> 00:10:45.049 President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be the sports 00:10:45.049 --> 00:10:46.789 minister. This was years before he actually got 00:10:46.789 --> 00:10:48.990 the job. But he never took office then. No, he 00:10:48.990 --> 00:10:51.649 didn't. And without getting bogged down in the 00:10:51.649 --> 00:10:54.009 intricacies of the Majlis, which is the Iranian 00:10:54.009 --> 00:10:56.230 parliament, it's important to note that nominations 00:10:56.230 --> 00:10:59.370 often get rejected for political reasons. It's 00:10:59.370 --> 00:11:01.009 a common fiction point between the president 00:11:01.009 --> 00:11:03.909 and the parliament. So Sujati was on the radar. 00:11:04.090 --> 00:11:06.220 He was the guy they wanted. But he didn't get 00:11:06.220 --> 00:11:08.659 the baton passed to him that time around. He 00:11:08.659 --> 00:11:11.679 had to wait. And waiting is hard for a sprinter. 00:11:11.779 --> 00:11:14.820 But the opportunity came back around. Fast forward 00:11:14.820 --> 00:11:18.820 to August 2021. President Ibrahim Raisi is forming 00:11:18.820 --> 00:11:21.299 his cabinet. And this time, Saad Jati gets the 00:11:21.299 --> 00:11:25.039 call. August 25, 2021. He officially takes office 00:11:25.039 --> 00:11:27.669 as the Minister of Sport and Youth. So what does 00:11:27.669 --> 00:11:29.450 this all mean for us looking back at it? We've 00:11:29.450 --> 00:11:31.610 got the guy who ran the steeplechase now running 00:11:31.610 --> 00:11:33.970 the entire ministry. It feels like the completion 00:11:33.970 --> 00:11:35.830 of an arc. He's gone from the person running 00:11:35.830 --> 00:11:38.149 on the track to the person teaching about the 00:11:38.149 --> 00:11:40.029 track to the person building the track, metaphorically 00:11:40.029 --> 00:11:43.730 speaking. It is deeply significant. In a lot 00:11:43.730 --> 00:11:45.850 of governments, and this isn't unique to Iran 00:11:45.850 --> 00:11:48.470 by any means, the minister of sport is often 00:11:48.470 --> 00:11:51.389 a pure political appointee. Maybe they helped 00:11:51.389 --> 00:11:54.289 with a campaign or they just have the right connections, 00:11:54.330 --> 00:11:56.769 but they've never sweat on a field in their lives. 00:11:57.289 --> 00:12:00.009 Having Sejati there meant having someone who 00:12:00.009 --> 00:12:02.169 knew the smell of the locker room, the pressure 00:12:02.169 --> 00:12:04.240 of the starting gun. This brings up the whole 00:12:04.240 --> 00:12:06.860 concept of the practitioner politician. We see 00:12:06.860 --> 00:12:09.399 this debate in a lot of sectors. People say we 00:12:09.399 --> 00:12:11.139 need a doctor to run the health care system or 00:12:11.139 --> 00:12:12.740 we need a general to run the Defense Department. 00:12:13.120 --> 00:12:16.399 The logic is that because they did the job, they 00:12:16.399 --> 00:12:18.679 will be inherently better at managing the job. 00:12:18.940 --> 00:12:21.240 That's the assumption. Yes, he knows what we 00:12:21.240 --> 00:12:23.940 need, but it's a double edged sword. How so? 00:12:24.100 --> 00:12:26.100 Because the skills that make you an elite practitioner 00:12:26.100 --> 00:12:28.360 are often the exact opposite of the skills that 00:12:28.360 --> 00:12:30.419 make you a good administrator. Think about an 00:12:30.419 --> 00:12:33.440 elite athlete like Sujati. To run a sub 30 minute 00:12:33.440 --> 00:12:36.600 10K, you have to be somewhat selfish. Your world 00:12:36.600 --> 00:12:38.720 has to be incredibly narrow. It's your diet, 00:12:38.759 --> 00:12:41.039 your sleep, your training, your lane. You have 00:12:41.039 --> 00:12:43.480 to block out the rest of the world to focus purely 00:12:43.480 --> 00:12:45.799 on your performance. Right. You can't be worrying 00:12:45.799 --> 00:12:47.440 about everyone else's problems when you're on 00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:51.019 the final lap. Exactly. But politics. Administration. 00:12:51.019 --> 00:12:53.419 That is entirely about everyone else's problems. 00:12:53.559 --> 00:12:56.100 It's broad. It's messy. It involves constant 00:12:56.100 --> 00:12:58.720 compromise. You can't just work harder to get 00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:00.860 a budget passed the way. You can work harder 00:13:00.860 --> 00:13:03.659 to shave a second off your track time. So while 00:13:03.659 --> 00:13:07.340 Sojati had the credibility, the transition from 00:13:07.340 --> 00:13:09.539 the sort of selfishness of elite sport to the 00:13:09.539 --> 00:13:11.980 service of administration is often much harder 00:13:11.980 --> 00:13:13.919 than people think. That's a really fascinating 00:13:13.919 --> 00:13:16.399 point. The brute force method just doesn't work 00:13:16.399 --> 00:13:19.019 in bureaucracy. But Sejani did have that PhD. 00:13:19.179 --> 00:13:21.679 He had the academic side, which suggests he could 00:13:21.679 --> 00:13:23.299 think systematically, not just individually. 00:13:23.340 --> 00:13:25.779 He did. And he served in that role for almost 00:13:25.779 --> 00:13:29.980 exactly two years, from August 2021 until August 00:13:29.980 --> 00:13:33.679 2023. And his successor was Kimar Hashemi. But 00:13:33.679 --> 00:13:35.379 we need to talk about how that tenure ended. 00:13:35.899 --> 00:13:37.799 Because this brings us back to the hook, that 00:13:37.799 --> 00:13:39.919 dramatic crash we started with. We have to connect 00:13:39.919 --> 00:13:41.679 those dots. We mentioned the crash happened on 00:13:41.679 --> 00:13:45.080 February 23, 2023. Sejati was visiting Baft County. 00:13:45.259 --> 00:13:47.720 And again, looking at the map, this highlights 00:13:47.720 --> 00:13:50.639 the grunt work of the job. He wasn't just sitting 00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:53.360 in Tehran in an office. He was out in the provinces. 00:13:53.700 --> 00:13:56.120 Right. That physical risk is part of the job 00:13:56.120 --> 00:13:58.259 description when you are inspecting facilities 00:13:58.259 --> 00:14:01.559 in remote areas. When that helicopter went down, 00:14:01.580 --> 00:14:03.320 it was a catastrophic failure. We mentioned the 00:14:03.320 --> 00:14:06.570 deputy died. But Sejati. He suffered a brain 00:14:06.570 --> 00:14:08.990 hemorrhage. A brain hemorrhage? I mean, that 00:14:08.990 --> 00:14:11.190 is a life -altering injury. That's not a sprained 00:14:11.190 --> 00:14:13.549 ankle on the track. It is incredibly serious. 00:14:14.309 --> 00:14:17.090 And here's where the endurance theme comes back 00:14:17.090 --> 00:14:20.309 with a vengeance. Most people, if they survive 00:14:20.309 --> 00:14:22.250 a helicopter crash and suffer a brain bleed, 00:14:22.389 --> 00:14:25.090 would retire immediately. They'd send in the 00:14:25.090 --> 00:14:26.809 resignation letter right from the hospital bed. 00:14:26.929 --> 00:14:29.809 I'm done. I survived. I'm going home. But Sojati 00:14:29.809 --> 00:14:32.649 didn't leave office immediately. No. And this 00:14:32.649 --> 00:14:34.230 is the part that really strikes me. The crash 00:14:34.230 --> 00:14:36.830 was in February. He didn't resign until August 00:14:36.830 --> 00:14:40.649 1st, 2023. That's nearly six months later. Roughly 00:14:40.649 --> 00:14:43.950 five months, yes. He stayed on. Now, the sources 00:14:43.950 --> 00:14:46.230 don't explicitly state that he resigned because 00:14:46.230 --> 00:14:48.429 of the crash. But when you look at the severity 00:14:48.429 --> 00:14:52.580 of such an accident, the physical toll. the psychological 00:14:52.580 --> 00:14:55.139 trauma of losing a deputy sitting right next 00:14:55.139 --> 00:14:57.519 to you in the proximity of the dates, it is a 00:14:57.519 --> 00:14:59.940 very reasonable inference that the accident played 00:14:59.940 --> 00:15:02.139 a major role in the end of his tenure. It really 00:15:02.139 --> 00:15:05.399 paints a picture of a man who is wired to persist. 00:15:05.740 --> 00:15:07.620 I mean, think about the steeplechase again. You 00:15:07.620 --> 00:15:09.840 hit a barrier. You fall into the water. What 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:11.419 do you do? You don't walk off the track. You 00:15:11.419 --> 00:15:13.700 get up wet and tired and you keep running. He 00:15:13.700 --> 00:15:16.399 applied that exact same logic to a helicopter 00:15:16.399 --> 00:15:18.940 crash. It's a testament to his conditioning, 00:15:19.120 --> 00:15:22.539 not just physical, but mental. He spent his entire 00:15:22.539 --> 00:15:26.039 life overriding the brain signal to stop. When 00:15:26.039 --> 00:15:28.940 his legs burned in Atlanta in 1996, he overrode 00:15:28.940 --> 00:15:31.200 it. When his political nomination failed years 00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:33.740 ago, he overrode it. When the helicopter crashed, 00:15:33.940 --> 00:15:35.799 he tried to override it. But eventually, even 00:15:35.799 --> 00:15:37.740 the best athlete hits a wall they just can't 00:15:37.740 --> 00:15:40.539 run through. Exactly. And his resignation in 00:15:40.539 --> 00:15:43.740 August 2023 marked the end of that specific race. 00:15:43.940 --> 00:15:46.320 It's a remarkable biography when you lay it all 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:49.179 out chronologically like that. Born in Tehran 00:15:49.179 --> 00:15:53.080 on March 21st, 1969. He grows up to become an 00:15:53.080 --> 00:15:55.379 Asian champion. He becomes a doctor of physiology. 00:15:55.659 --> 00:15:58.860 He becomes a minister of sport. He survives a 00:15:58.860 --> 00:16:02.460 devastating crash. It's a lot for one life. It 00:16:02.460 --> 00:16:04.879 is a dense biography. Yeah. And what stands out 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:07.679 to me is that Sajjadi represents a rare experiment 00:16:07.679 --> 00:16:09.779 in governance. We complain all the time that 00:16:09.779 --> 00:16:12.480 politicians are disconnected from reality. But 00:16:12.480 --> 00:16:14.360 here is a man who is deeply connected to the 00:16:14.360 --> 00:16:16.639 reality of his field. You can't tell him, Mr. 00:16:16.700 --> 00:16:18.629 Minister. You don't. know what it's like to train 00:16:18.629 --> 00:16:20.970 for the olympics he's been there he has the receipts 00:16:20.970 --> 00:16:23.590 he has the time sheets exactly he has the undeniable 00:16:23.590 --> 00:16:26.750 credibility of practice but and this raises that 00:16:26.750 --> 00:16:28.929 important question we touched on earlier does 00:16:28.929 --> 00:16:31.769 that expertise always translate to success in 00:16:31.769 --> 00:16:34.149 the political machinery just because you understand 00:16:34.149 --> 00:16:36.029 the physiology of a runner does that mean you 00:16:36.029 --> 00:16:38.309 can navigate the budget committees the public 00:16:38.309 --> 00:16:40.690 pressure the media and the unpredictable disasters 00:16:41.370 --> 00:16:43.169 That's the million -dollar question. Being a 00:16:43.169 --> 00:16:44.669 great player doesn't always make you a great 00:16:44.669 --> 00:16:47.269 coach, and being a great runner doesn't always 00:16:47.269 --> 00:16:49.929 make you a great politician. But his background 00:16:49.929 --> 00:16:52.210 certainly gave him a unique perspective that 00:16:52.210 --> 00:16:54.470 most of his predecessors probably lacked. And 00:16:54.470 --> 00:16:57.330 that perspective is valuable. He could look at 00:16:57.330 --> 00:17:00.210 a blueprint for a new stadium or a training program 00:17:00.210 --> 00:17:03.409 and understand the on -the -ground reality in 00:17:03.409 --> 00:17:06.509 a way a career politician never could. He knows 00:17:06.509 --> 00:17:08.549 that if the track surface is wrong, the shins 00:17:08.549 --> 00:17:10.990 will fracture. He knows the granular details. 00:17:11.230 --> 00:17:13.369 So as we wrap up this deep dive into the life 00:17:13.369 --> 00:17:16.130 of Hamid Sajjadi, what are we left with? We have 00:17:16.130 --> 00:17:19.190 the story of the sprinter statesman, a man defined 00:17:19.190 --> 00:17:21.609 by the clock, by the hurdles, and by his ability 00:17:21.609 --> 00:17:23.890 to keep getting back up. We are left with a portrait 00:17:23.890 --> 00:17:27.930 of pure resilience. From the 3 ,000 -meter steeplechase, 00:17:28.029 --> 00:17:30.150 which is essentially an obstacle course, to the 00:17:30.150 --> 00:17:32.990 obstacle course of Iranian politics, and finally, 00:17:33.009 --> 00:17:36.430 the literal survival of a disaster. It's a testament 00:17:36.430 --> 00:17:39.609 to the human capacity to adapt and endure. And 00:17:39.609 --> 00:17:41.869 I want to leave you listening today with a final 00:17:41.869 --> 00:17:45.869 thought to mull over. Sejati spent his life mastering 00:17:45.869 --> 00:17:48.910 the steeplechase. It's a race defined by rhythm, 00:17:49.029 --> 00:17:52.410 by pacing, and by overcoming fixed visible barriers. 00:17:52.690 --> 00:17:54.829 You can see the hurdle. You know it's coming. 00:17:54.930 --> 00:17:57.509 You jump it. But politics, politics is rarely 00:17:57.509 --> 00:17:59.750 that structured. Exactly. So the question is. 00:18:00.109 --> 00:18:02.309 Does the rigid, ironclad discipline required 00:18:02.309 --> 00:18:05.450 to clear physical hurdles help? Or does it actually 00:18:05.450 --> 00:18:07.730 hinder someone when they face the unpredictable, 00:18:08.130 --> 00:18:10.269 invisible obstacles of political administration? 00:18:11.130 --> 00:18:13.950 Is the mindset of an Olympian truly compatible 00:18:13.950 --> 00:18:16.269 with the compromise of a politician? That is 00:18:16.269 --> 00:18:18.390 something worth thinking about. The track is 00:18:18.390 --> 00:18:20.789 predictable. The world is not. And thanks for 00:18:20.789 --> 00:18:22.430 diving in with us today. It's been a journey 00:18:22.430 --> 00:18:24.369 through sports science and survival. We'll see 00:18:24.369 --> 00:18:24.910 you on the next one.