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This article is about ethnic Armenian Olympic medalists. For athletes who competed for the modern Republic of Armenia (since 1996), see Armenia at the Olympics § List of medalists.
Soviet gymnast Albert Azaryan(pictured on a 2009 postage stamp) is the most decorated Armenian Olympian of all time with three gold and one silver medals.
From 1952 to 1988, most Armenian athletes represented the Soviet Union. Although Armenia became an independent state in 1991, during the 1992 Barcelona Games Armenia and other former Soviet states (except the Baltic states) were part of the Unified Team. The National Olympic Committee of Armenia was founded in 1990 and became an International Olympic Committee member in 1993.[3] Since the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, the Republic of Armenia participates separately, but still some Armenian athletes compete under foreign flags, including athletes who migrated because of the economic crisis in the country in 1990s.
Ancient Olympic Games
One of the most prominent Armenian kings, Tiridates III, who is best known for adopting Christianity as Armenia's state religion in 301, became a champion in wrestling in the 265th Olympics in 281 at age 22-23.[4]
King of Armenia Varazdat (Varasdates) from the Arshakuni dynasty, who reigned between 374 and 378,[5] is the last known champion of the Ancient Olympic Games. He became a champion in fisticuffs at the 291st Olympic Games in 385 A.D., seven years after leaving the Armenian throne.[6][b]
^385 is the most widely accepted date,[7][8][9][10][11] supported by a memorial plate at the museum in Olympia, Greece.[12]
Other authors have indicated 369,[13][14][15][16] 365,[17] and 393[18] as the date of his victory. Some authors have erroneously stated that Varazdat was an Olympic champion in wrestling or pentathlon.[19]
^According to Faustus of Byzantium; see Hacikyan, Agop Jack; Basmajian, Gabriel; Franchuk, Edward S.; Ouzounian, Nourhan (2000). The Heritage of Armenian Literature: From the Oral Tradition to the Golden Age. Vol. 1. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. p. 184. ISBN9780814328156.
^Gardiner, E. Norman (2002). Athletics in the ancient world. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications. ISBN9780486424866. The last Olympic victor whose name we know is the Armenian Prince Varazdates, who won the boxing in the 291st Olympiad (A. D. 385).
^Mandell, Richard D. (1987). The Nazi Olympics. Champaign: University of Illinois Press. p. 6. ISBN9780252013256. Under the tolerant, assimilating Romans, the Olympics became polyglot and the last Olympic victor of whom we have record was an Armenian prince, Varaztad, who won a boxing match in A.D. 385.
^Trypanis, Constantine Athanasius (1964). Grooves in the wind. Chilmark Press. p. 7. By a strange irony of fate the last recorded victor of the national (Olympic) games was Varazdates, a Ascarid from Armenia, who won the boxing in a.d. 385.
^Baker, William Joseph (1988). Sports in the Western world (Rev. ed.). Urbana: University of Illinois Press. p. 40. ISBN9780252060427. Fittingly, the last champion for whom there is evidence was not a Greek, but an Armenian boxer named Varaztad.
^Lambros, Sp. P.; Polites, N. G. (1896). The Olympic Games, B.C.776-A.D.1896: Part First. New York: American Olympic Committee. p. 8. This explains how in the two hundred and ninety first Olympiad (385 B.C.) the victory was carried off by the Armenian pugilist, Varasdates, a descendant of the royal family of Arsacides, who became later the king of Armenia. This Varasdates was the last conqueror in the Olympic Games known to us.
^Ispirian 2000, pp. 193–194: "Հարցի ճշգրտման վրա լույս է սփռում Հունաստանի Օլիմպիա ավանի օլիմպիական թանգարանում ցուցադրվող դարերի խոքից մեզ հասած հուշագիրը, ուր աղյուսաձև վերից վար նշված են օլիմպիական խաղերի թվերը, դրանց անցկացման տարեթվերը, օլիմպիական խաղերի չեմպիոնների անունները և նրանց երկրների անվանումները: Այդ հուշագիրը տեղեկացնում է որ հին հունական օլիմպիոնոկոսի կոչումը նվաճել է հայաստանցի Վարազդատը:"
^Scanlon, Thomas F. (2002). Eros and Greek Athletics. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 357. ISBN9780195348767. Varazdates, a Arsacid from Armenia who won in boxing in A.D. 369.
^Guttmann, Allen (2004). Sports: The First Five Millennia. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. p. 22. ISBN9781558496101. The date of the last Olympic is as uncertain as the date of the first. Until quite recently, the last known victor was the Armenian prince Varazdat, who won the boxing competition in 369 A.D., but an inscription discovered at Olympia in 1994 gives the names of several athletes whose victories came as late as 385 A.D. If Theodosius I decreed an end to the Olympics in 394, as some scholars believe, then the last games took place in 393. (The evidence for this belief comes from an eleventh-century manuscript by Georgios Kedrenos.)
^Wenn, Stephen R.; Schaus, Gerald P., eds. (2007). Onward to the Olympics : historical perspectives on the Olympic Games. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. p. 5. ISBN978-0-88920-505-5. Not only does the honour of being the last known Olympian no longer belong to Varazdat(es) of Armenia in AD 369, but it is significant for our understanding of the "end" of the Games that these latest Olympians came from Athens, not from distant parts if the ancient world.
^Littlewood, A.R. (2010). "Olympia". In Wilson, Nigel (ed.). Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece. New York: Routledge. p. 515. ISBN978-0-415-87396-3. Although the Roman conquest initially involved a vast diminution in the games' prestige, they now become open to at least some non-Greeks (the last known victor, of boxing in AD 369, was Varazdates, the crown prince of Armenia).
^Perrottet, Tony (2004). The Naked Olympics: The True Story of the Ancient Games. New York: Random House. p. 190. ISBN978-0-8129-6991-7. A.D. 365 - The last Olympic victor on record is the Armenian prince Varazdate, who won the boxing in the 291st Olympiad. A.D. 393 - Last official Olympic Games (the 293rd). The victors' names are lost.
^Katvalian, Maksim (1985). "Վարազդան [Varazdat]". In Hambardzumyan, Viktor (ed.). Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia (in Armenian). Yerevan: Armenian Encyclopedia. pp. 305–306. Վարազդատը աղբյուրներում հայտնի է որպես բազմակողմանի զարգացած մարզիկ (ըստ Մովսես Խորենացու՝ կորովի նետաձիգ, ճարտար գազանամարտիկ, սուսերամարտիկ, ըմբշամարտիկ, բռնցքամարտիկ): Նրա անունը դրոշմվել է մարմարյա սալիկին՝ որպես վերջին օլիմպիադայի (393) չեմպիոնի:
^ abArmenian father; see "'Rome 1960': Politics at play in Olympic Games". Today. 7 July 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2012. His father, an Armenian-born discus thrower, and his mother, a Ukrainian volleyball player, had met at the Kiev State Institute of Physical Education, and both taught there while he was growing up.
^Armenian mother; see "Manuela Maleeva–Female tennis player". events.bg. Retrieved 20 August 2012. The mother, who came from a prominent Armenian family, which found refuge in Bulgaria after the 1896 Armenian massacres in the Ottoman Empire, was the best Bulgarian tennis player in the 1960s.
^Armenian paternal grandfather; see "Bio:Andre Agassi". Persian Mirror. Archived from the original on 23 May 2009. Retrieved 27 January 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
^"Andre Agassi". databaseOlympics.com. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
Parsadanyan, Albert (2003). Գիտելիքների շտեմարան (in Armenian). Vol. 1. Yerevan: VMV-Print. pp. 152–158. ISBN99930-960-4-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help) [a list of ethnic Armenian medalists up to 2000]
Gold
Soviet Union
United States