Yurik Vardanyan

Yuri Norayrovich Vardanyan (Юрий Норайрович Варданян; Յուրի Վարդանյան, also transliterated Yurik Vardanian, 13 June 1956 – 1 November 2018) was a Soviet Armenian weightlifter.

Vardanyan was born on 13 June 1956 in Leninakan, Armenian SSR (now Gyumri, Armenia), a city well known for its weightlifters.

He began weight training in 1970 under the guidance of his uncle Sergey Vardanyan.

He earned the title Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR in 1977 and was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1985.

Yuri Vardanyan first came onto the international weightlifting scene in 1977.

He competed against Peter Wenzel of East Germany, one of the top middleweights in the world, twice that year and defeated him both times.

Also that same year Vardanyan also won the Championship of the USSR for the first time.

Vardanyan had set all the world records in the division by the time of the Weightlifting European Championships at the age of 20 and became a Weightlifting World Champion for the first time at the age of 21.

For his deeds, he received the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR award that year.

In 1978, Vardanyan moved up to the light heavyweight division (82.5 kg).

He soon became the European Champion again and set all the division records by the time of the Championships.

Four months later, at the World Championships, Vardanyan came into the competition relatively overshadowed by more well-known weightlifters, such as David Rigert.

Vardanyan caught the eyes of the weightlifting world by breaking all of his own records again and defeating silver medalist Péter Baczakó of Hungary by 25 kg in the total in a dominant performance.

Vardanyan's spot as the best light heavyweight in the world had gone unchallenged once again in 1979.

He set many world records at the USSR competitions that year, leaving the world record in the total at 390 kg. Because of his success so far, great expectations were set for Vardanyan at the Olympics the coming year.

Vardanyan won a 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 trained at Lokomotiv in Leninakan, Armenia.

At the 1980 Summer Olympics Vardanyan became the first weightlifter from Armenia ever to win a gold medal in weightlifting.

In a dominant performance, Vardanyan also became the first light-heavyweight (82.5 kg) to lift a total of 400 kg in an official competition, shattering both the Olympic and world records.

By contrast, middle-heavyweight gold medalist Peter Baczako (90 kg) totaled 377.5 kg and sub-heavyweight gold medalist Ota Zaremba (100 kg) totaled 395 kg. Even heavyweight bronze medalist György Szalai (110 kg) had only totaled 390 kg.

As for Vardanyan's division, silver medalist Blagoy Blagoev had totaled 372.5 kg and bronze medalist Dušan Poliačik totaled 367.5 kg.

The following year, Vardanyan moved up to middle-heavyweight for a competition in Donetsk, in which he set all the division's world records, but decided to move back down to light heavyweight for the World and European Championships in Lille.

It was also during this time that Asen Zlatev of Bulgaria emerged as a top contender in the division.

Zlatev had also won a gold medal at the 1980 Olympics and now moved up to light heavyweight, as had Vardanyan.

Zlatev placed second behind Vardanyan in both competitions in Lille.

Vardanyan went back up to middle-heavyweight again in 1982.

He set all the division records again at the USSR Weightlifting Championships in Dnipropetrovsk.

However, he came in second to old rival Blagoi Blagoev at the European and World Championships and decided to campaign at light heavyweight once again.

Competing as a light heavyweight again, Vardanyan successfully regained his European and World Championships in close competitions to Zlatev, winning by just 2.5 kg in the total in both.

At the 1983 World Weightlifting Championships, Vardanyan's friends and teammates Oksen Mirzoyan and Yurik Sarkisyan had also won the gold medal in their respective divisions, meaning that Armenians had come in first in the world in three of the ten divisions.

Vardanyan faced defeat for the only time in the light heavyweight weight class at the 1984 European Weightlifting Championships, coming in second to Zlatev.

Because of the 1984 Summer Olympics boycott, Vardanyan was unable to compete at the Olympics that year, despite being a massive gold medal favorite.

In place of the 1984 Olympic Games, Vardanyan and the rest of the Soviet and Soviet-affiliated athletes competed at the 1984 Friendship Games.

Vardanyan gave yet another dominant performance at the Friendship Games, this time totalling 405 kg to win the gold medal, 20 kg ahead of silver medalist Asen Zlatev (385 kg) who also riched 405 at the World Championships in Sofia in 1986.

Leading up to the light heavyweight division, all the first five divisions had been won by the Bulgarian team.

Vardanyan was the first weightlifter from the Soviet team (or any other country) to win a gold medal.

In 1994 he was elected a member of the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame.

In 2009 Vardanyan became an advisor to President Serzh Sargsyan's and was appointed Minister of Sports in May 2013.

In June, he was controversially appointed Armenia's ambassador to Georgia.