A program featuring people with physical abnormalities and unusual talents was showing a segment on Mehrzad, and Rezaei, speaking through a translator Saturday night, said he thought, “I could actually use him on my team.”

Rezaei called the network, which helped him contact Mehrzad, who was living in seclusion in a coastal town in northern Iran. Mehrzad, who turns 29 on Saturday, often uses a wheelchair because a bike accident when he was 16 injured his pelvis, causing his right leg to stop growing and be about 6 inches shorter than his left. Embarrassed by his height and a hormonal disorder, acromegaly, that causes changes in facial bone structure, Mehrzad rarely left his home, Rezaei said.

Mehrzad was not made available for interviews Saturday night, after Iran began pool play in the Paralympics by sweeping China, but Rezaei shared details about him.

Before Rezaei found him, Mehrzad had heard of sitting volleyball — after all, the Iranian men had won five gold medals and two silvers across the last seven Paralympics — but had never played before.

“We gave him reason to hope, and he wanted it, of course,” Rezaei said. He added: “I will tell you a key word that he used himself. Before he became famous, when he came out of the house, everybody looked at him very strangely. And then now that he’s famous, when he comes out, everyone wants to take a picture. He became a champion.”