Yurik Vardanyan
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
 Vardanian (center) at the Moscow Olympics, 1980 |
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Competitor for  Soviet Union |
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| Men's Weightlifting | ||
| Olympic Games | ||
| Gold | 1980 Moscow | -82.5 kg |
Yurik Vardanian (Armenian: Յուրիկ Վարդանյան, Russian: Юрик Норайрович Варданян, born June 13, 1956 in Leninakan, Armenian SSR)[1][2] is a former Olympic weightlifter for the USSR. He trained at Lokomotiv in Leninakan, Armenia.
Vardanian won the gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics, becoming the world's first weightlifter to achieve a 400 kilogram total in the 82.5 kg weight category. During his career he set several world records.
He earned the title Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR in 1977 and was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1985. In 1994 he was elected member of the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame.[3] Since 1991 Vardanian lives in the United States.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Weightlifting achievements
- Senior world champion (1977–79, 1981, 1983, and 1985);[1]
- Silver medalist in Senior World Championships (1982);
- Senior European champion (1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, and 1983);[1]
- Silver medalist in Senior European Championships (1982 and 1984);
- All-time senior world record holder in total (405 kg competing at 82.5 kg);
- Multiple senior world record holder in total (1978–92);[1]
- USSR champion (1977, 1979–82);[1]
- Held the world record of 405 kg, in the total at 82.5 kg weight class before the reconstruction of the weight classes in 1992.
Vardanian was the first light-heavyweight athlete to lift a total of 400 kg total in an official competition. This record is no longer recognised because of a restructuring of the weight classes in 1993 and then again in 1998. However, no athlete has lifted 400 kg thus far in the closest (heavier) weight division of 85 kg.
The 400 kg total lifted by Vardanian in the 1980 Moscow Olympics was worthy a gold medal not only in his, but also in two heavier weight classes: Baczako Peter (90 kg) won gold with a total of 377.5 kg and Zaremba Ota (100 kg) totaled 395 kg. Even in the 110 kg class Vardanian would have a won a bronze, beating Syzali Gygorgy (390 kg). At the 1984 Friendship Cup in Varna, Vardanyan set his last world records, 182.5 kg in the snatch, 224.0 kg in the clean & jerk and 405 kg in the total.
[edit] Career bests
- Snatch: 182.5kg kg in class to 82.5 kg.
- Snatch: 190.0 kg in class to 90 kg.
- Clean and jerk: 224.0 kg in class to 82.5 kg.
- Clean and jerk: 228.0 kg in class to 90 kg.
- Total: 405.0 kg in class to 82.5 kg.
- Total: 415.0 kg in class to 90 kg.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f Great Russian Encyclopedia (2006), Moscow: Bol'shaya Rossiyskaya Enciklopediya Publisher, vol. 2, pp. 601–602.
- ^ "Yuri Vardanyan". Sports-reference.com. http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/va/yuri-vardanyan-1.html. Retrieved February 17, 2010.
- ^ "Weightlifting Hall of Fame". International Weightlifting Federation. http://www.iwf.net/iwf/organization/members.php. Retrieved February 17, 2010.
[edit] Bibliography
- I. Sosnovsky (1982) (in Russian). Yurik Vardanian. Heroes of the Olympic Games. Moscow: Fizkultura i sport. http://www.sportlib.ru/books/heavy/vardanyan/.
[edit] External links
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- 1956 births
- People from Gyumri
- Armenian emigrants to the United States
- Armenian weightlifters
- American people of Armenian descent
- Honoured Masters of Sports of the USSR
- Olympic weightlifters of the Soviet Union
- Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union
- Soviet weightlifters
- Weightlifters at the 1980 Summer Olympics
- Living people
- Olympic medalists in weightlifting
