Saeid Mollaei

Judo career In 2001, at the age of 10, he entered the Persian Gulf Judo School run by Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, a judo instructor.

He won bronze medals at the 2015 and 2016 Asian Championships, and a silver medal at the 2017 edition. He was a bronze medalist at the Budapest 2017 World Championships, and a 2018 Baku World Championships gold medalist.

He competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 81 kg event, and was eliminated in the first bout by Khasan Khalmurzaev.

In reaction, saying he was afraid to return to Iran after exposing and criticizing its pressure on him to deliberately lose in the World Championships to avoid a potential bout against Muki, in August 2019 he moved to Europe with a two-year visa from Germany.

Iran's actions led the International Judo Federation (IJF) to indefinitely ban Iran from competition. That month, he competed as part of the IJF refugee team at the Osaka Grand Slam. Muki congratulated Mollaei on Instagram for returning to judo and participating in Osaka in his first competition since the World Championships in Tokyo, and Mollaei, in turn, thanked Muki for his support and wrote: "Good luck to you all the time, my best friend." The mission of the Crans Montana Forum is "Towards a more Humane World".

Mollaei arrived in Israel in February 2021 to compete at the Tel Aviv Grand Prix. He represented Mongolia at Grand Slam Hungary 2020 and won bronze medal in –81 kg category.

Mollaei trained in Israel with the Israeli national judo team in the months prior to the 2020 Summer Olympics. He went on to win the silver medal in the men's –81 kg event.

Personal life On 12 January 2026, Mollaie publicly supported the 2025–2026 Iranian protests by stating: "We must eradicate the Islamic Republic. Khamanei and your gang should go to the grave."