Yurik Vardanyan

Vardanyan was born on 13 June 1956 in Leninakan, Armenian SSR (now Gyumri, Armenia), a city well known for its weightlifters.[4] He began weight training in 1970 under the guidance of his uncle Sergey Vardanyan.

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.[5][6][7] 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.[8][9]

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.

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.[10]

As for Vardanyan's division, silver medalist Blagoy Blagoev had totaled 372.5 kg and bronze medalist Dušan Poliačik totaled 367.5 kg.[11]

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.[12][13]

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.[14]

Vardanyan faced defeat for the only time in the light heavyweight weight class at the 1984 European Weightlifting Championships, coming in second to Zlatev.[15]

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. His performance would be followed by the Soviet weightlifters winning gold in the remaining four division, tying the Bulgarians in gold medals and total medals and winning the event due to having more silver medals.[16]

Vardanyan also set all the world records for a final time in the light heavyweight division. Although thirty world records were broken in the weightlifting event, Vardanyan was the only weightlifter to break all three of the snatch, clean and jerk and total world records in his respective division.[17] Vardanyan lifted a total of 405 kg, a total that has not been matched since, as the current light-heavyweight record for the now 85 kg light heavyweight category (thereby not including records set before the weightlimit change) is currently 394 kg, set by Andrei Rybakou at the 2008 Summer Olympics.[18]

Following the Friendship Games, Vardanyan won his final World Championship at the 1985 World Weightlifting Championships. Vardanyan won seven gold medals and one silver medal in total in the years he competed at the World Weightlifting Championships, putting him just in second on the all time medal count, behind the great Vasily Alekseyev. Vardanyan received the Order of Lenin award in 1985 for his many accomplishments in the field of sport. Vardanyan set 41 world records during his decorated career.[19]

Vardanyan achieved great popularity in the political world for his accomplishments in sports. He became a member of the Armenian parliament. When the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse, those who came to power sought to win the support of the best-known people in the country. In a bid to make people respect them and their decisions, the Union leaders paid Vardanyan a number of visits and requested that he express his support in public. He refused. Shortly before that, Vardanyan received an offer to move for the time being to the USA to sign a contract with the Federation of Weightlifting. Vardanyan did so, having little choice otherwise.[20]

Vardanyan was forced to end his weightlifting career prematurely by the Soviet government. He was already training for the 1988 Summer Olympics and had no intention to stop competing. Vardanyan later claimed he could have won four Olympics.[20]

Vardanyan moved to Moorpark, California with his family in 1992. Vardanyan had not forgotten about his homeland and still continued his political pursuit in Moorpark in order to help Armenia. Using connections with former Soviet Union countries, Vardanyan did work in business and traveled frequently.[20][21]

Vardanyan and his family returned to Armenia in 2009. Vardanyan openly politically supported Serzh Sargsyan's policies, unlike those of the previous President Robert Kocharyan, and decided it was time to return to his homeland in the wake of Sargsyan's election.[22] Vardanyan returned to his political duties and became and became an advisor to the President.[23]

He lived with his family in Yerevan, coaching his son, who has followed in his footsteps and taken up weightlifting.[20][24]