Leonid Zhabotinsky facts for kids

Zhabotinsky in 1968
Quick facts for kids Personal information
Born	(1938-01-28)28 January 1938 Uspenka, Sumy, Ukrainian SSR
Died	14 January 2016(2016-01-14) (aged 77) Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine
Height	1.94 m (6 ft 4 in)
Weight	163 kg (359 lb) (1968)
Sport
Sport	Weightlifting
Medal record Representing the  Soviet Union Olympic Games Gold 1964 Tokyo +90 kg Gold 1968 Mexico City +90 kg World Weightlifting Championships Bronze 1963 Stockholm +90 kg Gold 1964 Tokyo +90 kg Gold 1965 Teheran +90 kg Gold 1966 East Berlin +90 kg Gold 1968 Mexico City +90 kg European Weightlifting Championships Silver 1963 Stockholm +90 kg Gold 1966 East Berlin +90 kg Gold 1968 Leningrad +90 kg USSR Weightlifting Championships Silver 1961 Dnipropetrovsk +110 kg Silver 1962 Tbilisi +110 kg Silver 1963 Moscow +102.5 kg Gold 1964 Kiev +102.5 kg Gold 1965 Yerevan +102.5k g Gold 1966 Moscow +102.5 kg Gold 1967 Luhansk +102.5 kg Gold 1965 Rostov-on-Don +110 kg

Leonid Ivanovich Zhabotinsky (Ukrainian: Леонiд Іванович Жаботинський; 28 January 1938 – 14 January 2016) was a Soviet and Ukrainian weightlifter who set 19 world records in the superheavyweight class, and won gold medals at the 1964 and 1968 Olympic Games.

Early life

Zhabotinsky was born in a village in Uspenka, Sumy Oblast, Ukrainian SSR into a Cossack family. Although Ivan Filippovich, his father, was an athlete, Zhabotinsky stated in a 1967 interview that he took after one of his grandfathers, and neither of his parents had an outstanding physique. Zhabotinsky spent his childhood years in Zaporizhzhia. After graduating from the seven-year secondary school, he worked at the Kharkiv Tractor Plant and was coached by Mikhail Svetlichny at the local weightlifting club of the Armed Forces sports society.

Weightlifting career

Zhabotinsky debuted at the Ukrainian SSR Championship in 1957, where he earned a bronze medal. Later that year, Zhabotinsky entered the Kharkiv Pedagogical Institute and studied there until 1964. Zhabotinsky was the flag bearer for the Soviet Union during the opening ceremonies of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, carrying the Soviet flag single-handed when the team marched in, when all the other flag bearers used two hands. Between 1963 and 1974 Zhabotinsky set 19 world records in the superheavyweight class and won gold medals at the 1964 and 1968 Olympics. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1965 and 1991.

Personal life

In 1964 Zhabotinsky graduated from the Kharkiv Pedagogical Institute and in 1970 defended a PhD in pedagogy. After ending his sport career he coached weightlifters at the Soviet Army and retired in 1991 as a colonel. In 1987–1991 he worked in Madagascar as a military consultant and weightlifting coach. After that he became a pro-rector of the Moscow Institute of Business and Law, one of the first private higher education facilities in Russia.

Zhabotinsky was married to Raisa and had two sons, Ruslan and Vilen, both of whom have competed in weightlifting. He died at the age of 77 on 14 January 2016 in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.

Zhabotinsky was Arnold Schwarzenegger's teenage idol.