He came joint third with Arnaldo Mesa at the 1991 World Amateur Boxing Championships. Soltani was selected for the Olympics for the first time for the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona, Spain, competing in the featherweight division. He reached the semi final, where he was defeated by eventual gold medallist Andreas Tews of Germany. Omar said that "By the end of the Barcelona Olympics, the goal was to come back to win the gold this time. For us it was an even higher level. Nothing to do with the World Championships or the African Championships which was Hocine was each time medalist."