Former Olympic weightlifter Joe Haydar has died at the age of 85.
The Australian, who was born in Lebanon but moved to Western Australia in 1973, represented his new country at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Haydar placed 16th in the men’s weightlifting middleweight category at the Games, but later in his career he made a big mark in the culinary world by opening his own food business.
He established a much-loved pizzeria in Perth in 1974, initially called Joe’s Barnett’s Pizza.
The restaurant would later be renamed Joe’s Pizza, and Haydar opened several other restaurants in the area.
Hayder is survived by his family and five daughters, and Joe’s Pizza issued a statement on Facebook on Thursday.
“Our hearts are broken,” the restaurant said.
‘The world is a little darker without our shining light, which has guided us with its incredible wisdom.
Former Australian Olympic weightlifter Joe Haydar dies at 85
Following his athletic career, Haydar would open his own pizza chain in Bunbury, WA.
‘Keep flipping those pizzas and making those chili dogs.
‘This amazing photo, courtesy of Ben Yew Photography. Photograph taken for the One Bunbury Most Inspiring People initiative, it really captured the heart of who Joe was, always smiling and so cheeky. RIP dad, Joe, Jido.’
In a recent interview, the restaurant owner revealed that his love for food was the reason he took up weightlifting.
“When you work in the food sector and you have to taste the food, I weigh 110 kilos,” said Haydar, in an interview with Bunbury photographer Ben Yew’s 100 Inspiring People project.
‘The doctor told me ‘you better start losing a little weight’.’
Later, Haydar joined a gym and stumbled upon a new sport: weightlifting.
“Unknowingly, I didn’t know anything about records or anything like that, I suddenly broke Australian records,” he added.
But after representing Australia at the Olympics, Joe decided he wanted to follow a different path in the food industry, noting there was only one pizzeria in Perth at the time. He also created the ‘Australian pizza dog’ after it became clear there was demand from the WA public for a new menu item.
‘Whatever you have on pizza, you have it as a dog, tell me (what you would like),’ he said.
‘We weren’t selling that many pizzas, but we were selling 3,000 of them a week. It just took off and no one else could do it because (it was) a trademark.”
In 1979, the WA Government opened a new tower-shaped building in Bunbury, which was named Haydar House in honor of the Olympian. He would inaugurate the building together with the Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser.
He established the much-loved pizzeria in 1974, and it was initially called Joe’s Barnett’s Pizza.
His daughter, Andree, reflected on how kind her father was to people in the community, during an interview with Western Australia.
“He just loved life, he loved helping people, he never had anything bad to say about anyone,” he told the outlet.
“Anyone who needed his help, he was the first to say, ‘Okay, I’ll help you,’ or ‘I’ll do it.’
“I never heard anyone say anything bad about my dad, not even a cross word about him.
‘He just loved his grandchildren, oh my God, even when he was so sick, he was practically unconscious in the hospital, my niece… would come in and say, ‘Hello jeddo'” (grandfather in Arabic) and his eyes would light up. ‘
