Aussie Olympian Joe Hayder dies after building a unique fast food empire once his sporting career came to an end

Former Olympic weightlifter Joe Haydar has passed away aged 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 came 16th in the men’s weightlifting middleweight category at the Games but following his career he made a big mark in the culinary world by opening his own food business.   

He established a much-loved Perth pizzeria in 1974, initially named Joe’s Barnett’s Pizza.

The restaurant would later be renamed Joe’s Pizza, with Haydar opening up several other restaurants in the area.

Hayder is survived by his family and five daughters, with Joe’s Pizza issuing a statement on Facebook on Thursday.

‘Our hearts are Broken,’ the restaurant said.

‘The world is a little darker without our shining light, who has guided us with his unbelievable wisdom.

Following his athletic career, Haydar would open up his own pizza chain in Bunbury, WA

‘Keep flippin those pizzas and making those chilli dogs.

‘This amazing photo courtesy of Ben Yew Photography Photography taken for the One Bunbury most inspirational people initiative, really captured the heart of who Joe was, forever smiling and oh so cheeky. RIP Dad, Joe, Jido.’

In a recent interview, the restaurant owner revealed that his love for food was the reason why he got into weightlifting.

‘When you work in food and you’ve got to sample the food, I got up to 110 kilos,’ Haydar said, speaking in an interview with Bunbury photographer Ben Yew’s 100 Inspiring People Project.

‘The doctor said to me “you better start losing a bit of weight”.’

Haydar subsequently joined a gym and happened upon a new sport – weightlifting.

‘Unbeknown to me — I didn’t know anything about records or anything — all of a sudden I’ve broken Australian records,’ he added.

But after representing Australia at the Olympic Games, Joe decided he wanted to pursue a different path in the food industry, noting that at the time there was only one pizza shop in Perth. He also created the ‘Aussie pizza dog’ after it became clear there was a demand from the WA public for a new menu item.

‘Whatever you have in the pizza, you have it as a dog, you tell me (what you’d like),’ he said.

‘We weren’t selling that many pizzas, but we were selling 3000 of these a week. It just boomed on it and no one else could do it because it [was a] registered trademark.’

In 1979, the WA government opened a new tower-like building in Bunbury, which was named Haydar House after the Olympian. He would open the building alongside Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser.

He established the much-loved pizzeria in 1974, and it was initially named Joe’s Barnett’s Pizza 

His daughter, Andree reflected on how kind her father was to people in the community, during an interview with The West Australian.

‘He just loved life, he loved helping people, he never had a bad thing to say about anyone,’ she told the outlet.

‘Anybody who needed his help he was the first one to go: “Okay, I’ll help you,” or “I’ll do that”.

‘I’ve never heard anybody say a bad thing about my dad, not a cross word about him.

‘He just loved his grandkids, oh my god, even when he was so sick, he was practically unconscious in hospital, my niece… would come in and go: “Hi jeddo’” [grandfather in Arabic] and his eyes would light up.’