Parviz Jalayer won his first Iranian national lightweight weightlifting title in 1960. His first major international tournament was the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, where he placed seventh in a field of 20 competitors. The following year, he earned a silver medal at the Asian Championships, but was sixth at the World Championships. He had much better luck at the 1966 Asian Games, where he won the lightweight gold medal, and also took bronze at that year’s World Championships. His crowning moment, however, came at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, where he took silver in the lightweight division behind Poland’s Waldemar Baszanowski, having won bronze the year before at the Asian Championships.
Jalayer withdrew from the 1969 World Championships, and placed 11th when he returned in 1971. After withdrawing from the 1973 World Championships, he competed for one more year before retiring from active competition. He then held numerous roles in coaching and sports administration, the latter of which included a tenure as head of the Iranian Weightlifting Federation.