Yurik Vardanyan facts for kids

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Yuri Vardanyan

Vardanyan at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow
Personal information
Nationality	Armenian
Born	(1956-06-13)13 June 1956 Leninakan, Soviet Union (now Gyumri, Armenia)
Died	1 November 2018(2018-11-01) (aged 62) United States
Sport
Country	Soviet Union
Sport	Olympic weightlifting
Turned pro	1977
Retired	1985
Medal record Olympic Games Gold 1980 Moscow -82.5 kg World Championships Gold 1977 Stuttgart -75 kg Gold 1978 Gettysburg -82.5 kg Gold 1979 Thessaloniki -82.5 kg Gold 1980 Moscow -82.5 kg Gold 1981 Lille -82.5 kg Silver 1982 Ljubljana -90 kg Gold 1983 Moscow -82.5 kg Gold 1985 Södertälje -82.5 kg European Championships Gold 1977 Stuttgart -75 kg Gold 1978 Havířov -82.5 kg Gold 1980 Belgrade -82.5 kg Gold 1981 Lille -82.5 kg Silver 1982 Liubliana -90 kg Gold 1983 Moscow -82.5 kg Silver 1984 Vitoria -82.5 kg USSR Weightlifting Championships Gold 1977 Ratov Na Donu -75 kg Gold 1979 Leningrad -82.5 kg Gold 1981 Novosibirsk -90 kg Gold 1982 Dnipropetrovsk -90 kg Summer Spartakiad of the USSR Gold 1979 Leningrad -82.5 kg Cups of the USSR Gold 1976 Sverdlovski -75 kg Snatch Gold 1976 Sverdlovski -75 kg Clean and Jerk Gold 1976 Sverdlovski -75 kg Total
Updated on 15 December 2012.

Yuri Norayrovich Vardanyan (Russian: Юрий Норайрович Варданян; Armenian: Յուրի Վարդանյան, also known as Yurik Vardanian) was a famous Soviet Armenian weightlifter. He was born on June 13, 1956, and passed away on November 1, 2018.

Yuri Vardanyan won a gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics. He made history by becoming the first weightlifter in the world to lift a total of 400 kilograms in the 82.5 kg weight class. Throughout his amazing career, he set many world records. He trained in Leninakan, Armenia, a city known for its strong weightlifters. In 1977, he received the special title of Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR. Later, in 1985, he was given the Order of Lenin award. In 1994, he was honored by being added to the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame.

After his sports career, Vardanyan became involved in politics. In 2009, he became an advisor to President Serzh Sargsyan. Then, in May 2013, he was appointed Minister of Sports. In June 2014, he became Armenia's ambassador to Georgia.

Yuri Vardanyan's Early Life and Rise to Fame

Where did Yuri Vardanyan grow up?

Yuri Vardanyan was born on June 13, 1956, in Leninakan, which was then part of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. Today, this city is known as Gyumri, Armenia. It's a city famous for producing many strong weightlifters. Yuri started training in weightlifting in 1970 when he was just 14 years old. His uncle, Sergey Vardanyan, was his coach and guided him.

How did Vardanyan become a world champion?

Yuri Vardanyan first became known on the international weightlifting stage in 1977. That year, he competed against Peter Wenzel from East Germany, who was one of the best middleweight lifters. Yuri defeated him twice. In the same year, Vardanyan also won the Championship of the USSR for the first time. By the age of 20, he had already set all the world records in his division. He became a Weightlifting World Champion for the first time when he was 21. Because of these achievements, he was given the "Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR" award that year.

In 1978, Vardanyan moved up to a heavier weight class, the light heavyweight division (82.5 kg). He quickly became the European Champion again and set all the records for this new division. A few months later, at the World Championships, Vardanyan surprised everyone. He broke all his own records again and easily beat the silver medalist, Péter Baczakó from Hungary, by a large amount. This showed he was truly a dominant force in the sport.

By 1979, Yuri Vardanyan was clearly the best light heavyweight in the world. He continued to set many world records at competitions in the USSR, reaching a total lift of 390 kg. Because of his incredible success, people had very high hopes for him at the upcoming Olympics.

Yuri Vardanyan at the 1980 Olympic Games

What did Yuri Vardanyan achieve at the 1980 Olympics?

At the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Yuri Vardanyan made history. He became the very first weightlifter from Armenia to win a gold medal in weightlifting.

He put on an incredibly strong performance. Vardanyan was the first light-heavyweight (82.5 kg) to lift a total of 400 kg in an official competition. This broke both the Olympic and world records. To show how impressive this was, other gold medalists in heavier weight classes lifted less than him. For example, the middle-heavyweight gold medalist (90 kg) lifted 377.5 kg, and the sub-heavyweight gold medalist (100 kg) lifted 395 kg. Even a heavyweight bronze medalist (110 kg) only lifted 390 kg.

In Vardanyan's own division, the silver medalist, Blagoy Blagoev, lifted 372.5 kg. The bronze medalist, Dušan Poliačik, lifted 367.5 kg. This shows how far ahead Vardanyan was from his competitors.

What happened after the 1980 Olympics?

The year after the Olympics, Vardanyan moved up to the middle-heavyweight class for a competition in Donetsk. There, he set all the world records for that division. However, he decided to move back down to light heavyweight for the World and European Championships in Lille. Around this time, Asen Zlatev from Bulgaria also became a top competitor in the division. Zlatev had won a gold medal at the 1980 Olympics and also moved up to light heavyweight. In both competitions in Lille, Zlatev finished second behind Vardanyan.

In 1982, Vardanyan went back up to middle-heavyweight. He set all the division records again at the USSR Weightlifting Championships in Dnipropetrovsk. However, he came in second to his old rival, Blagoi Blagoev, at the European and World Championships. After this, he decided to compete as a light heavyweight again.

Back in the light heavyweight class, Vardanyan successfully won his European and World Championships again. These competitions were very close, with him winning by only 2.5 kg in the total in both. At the 1983 World Weightlifting Championships, Vardanyan's friends and teammates, Oksen Mirzoyan and Yurik Sarkisyan, also won gold medals in their weight classes. This meant that Armenian weightlifters won gold in three out of ten divisions worldwide.

Vardanyan faced defeat only once in the light heavyweight class. This happened at the 1984 European Weightlifting Championships, where he finished second to Zlatev.

Yuri Vardanyan at the 1984 Friendship Games

Why couldn't Vardanyan compete in the 1984 Olympics?

Because of the 1984 Summer Olympics boycott, Yuri Vardanyan could not compete at the Olympics that year. Many believed he would have easily won another gold medal. Instead of the Olympics, Vardanyan and other athletes from the Soviet Union and its allied countries competed at the 1984 Friendship Games.

What did Vardanyan achieve at the Friendship Games?

Vardanyan delivered another outstanding performance at the Friendship Games. He lifted a total of 405 kg to win the gold medal. This was 20 kg more than the silver medalist, Asen Zlatev, who lifted 385 kg. Before Vardanyan's event, the Bulgarian team had won gold in the first five weight divisions. Vardanyan was the first weightlifter from the Soviet team (or any other country) to win a gold medal at these games. After his win, Soviet weightlifters went on to win gold in the remaining four divisions. This helped the Soviet team tie the Bulgarians in gold and total medals, and they won the overall event because they had more silver medals.

Vardanyan also set all the world records for the light heavyweight division one last time. Even though 30 world records were broken in weightlifting at these games, Vardanyan was the only one to break all three world records: snatch, clean and jerk, and total, in his division. His total lift of 405 kg has not been matched since in that weight class. The current record for the 85 kg light heavyweight category (which is a slightly different weight limit) is 394 kg.

Yuri Vardanyan's Later Career and Life

What happened after his weightlifting career?

After the Friendship Games, Vardanyan won his last World Championship at the 1985 World Weightlifting Championships. In total, he won seven gold medals and one silver medal at the World Weightlifting Championships throughout his career. This placed him second on the all-time medal count, just behind the legendary Vasily Alekseyev. In 1985, Vardanyan received the Order of Lenin award for his many achievements in sports. He set an incredible 41 world records during his impressive career.

Yuri Vardanyan became very popular because of his sports achievements. He even became a member of the Armenian parliament. When the Soviet Union was about to break apart, leaders tried to get support from well-known people like Vardanyan. They visited him and asked him to publicly support them, but he refused. Around that time, he was offered a contract to move to the USA and work with the Federation of Weightlifting, which he accepted.

Vardanyan was forced to end his weightlifting career earlier than he wanted by the Soviet government. He was training for the 1988 Summer Olympics and planned to keep competing. Vardanyan later said he believed he could have won four Olympic gold medals.

In 1992, Vardanyan moved to Moorpark, California, with his family. He never forgot his home country and continued to work to help Armenia from the USA. He used his connections with former Soviet Union countries for business and traveled often.

Vardanyan and his family returned to Armenia in 2009. He openly supported President Serzh Sargsyan's policies and decided it was time to go back home after Sargsyan's election. He returned to political duties and became an advisor to the President.

He lived with his family in Yerevan, where he coached his son, who also became a weightlifter.

Yuri Vardanyan's Family Life

Vardanyan on a 2010 Armenian postal card

Vardanyan on a 2010 Armenian stamp

Yuri Vardanyan met his wife, Eleonora, who was a Russian athlete in the sport of luge. They met while training together for the USSR national sports teams. They got married in 1983 in Armenia. They had three sons: David (born 1983), Norayr (born 1987), and Michael (born 1995). Their middle son, Norayr Vardanyan, is also an Olympic weightlifter. He represented Armenia in the 2012 Olympics and now represents the United States.

Vardanyan moved to the United States in 1992 and settled in Los Angeles. He said that he had some political disagreements with the President at the time, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, which was a reason for his move. He came back to Armenia in 2009.

On October 8, 2010, Vardanyan was in a car accident when his vehicle hit a tractor on the Yerevan-Gyumri highway. He was taken to a hospital and had emergency surgery for a thigh bone injury and shin injuries, but he recovered.

On April 22, 2011, Vardanyan was hospitalized again for an unknown reason. Doctors said his condition was serious but stable. On the same day, he was diagnosed with an embolism (a blockage in a blood vessel). During surgery, his heart stopped, and he went into a coma. His condition improved a few days later, and he was released from the hospital on May 13, 2011.

To this day, Yuri Vardanyan is seen as a hero in Armenia for his achievements in weightlifting. A stamp featuring Vardanyan was printed in 2010 to honor him.

Yuri Vardanyan passed away on November 1, 2018, at the age of 62.

Yuri Vardanyan's Political Career

What was Vardanyan's role in government?

On April 2, 2009, Yuri Vardanyan was appointed as an advisor to President Serzh Sargsyan.

On May 8, 2013, Vardanyan was appointed Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs. When introducing him, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan said that it would be hard to find a better person for the job. He explained that Vardanyan understood the needs of athletes and what was needed to promote sports in the country. The Prime Minister believed Vardanyan's long experience and knowledge would bring great improvements to the field of sports.

On June 24, 2014, Vardanyan was appointed Armenia's ambassador to Georgia. This decision was not well-received by some diplomats and politicians. For example, Armenia's former Foreign Minister Alexander Arzumanyan respected Vardanyan's sports achievements but questioned his knowledge of Armenian-Georgian relations. However, a member of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, Shirak Torosyan, defended the decision. He said that Armenia had never appointed a professional diplomat as ambassador to Georgia since gaining independence. He also stated that the ambassador's role was to use their potential to improve relations, not necessarily to be a career diplomat.

Yuri Vardanyan's Major Achievements

Year	Venue	Weight	Snatch (kg)				Clean & Jerk (kg)				Total	Rank
			1	2	3	Rank	1	2	3	Rank
Olympic Games
1980	Moscow, Soviet Union	82.5 kg	165.0	172.5	177.5 WR	1	205.0	215.5 WR	222.5 WR	1	400 WR

Yuri Vardanyan's Career Highlights

• Senior world champion (1977–81, 1983, and 1985)
• Silver medalist in Senior World Championships (1982)
• Senior European champion (1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, and 1983)
• Silver medalist in Senior European Championships (1982 and 1984)
• All-time senior world record holder in total (405 kg competing at 82.5 kg)
• Held multiple senior world records in total (1978–92)
• USSR champion (1977, 1979–82)
• Held the world record of 405 kg in the total for the 82.5 kg weight class before the weight classes were changed in 1992.

Yuri Vardanyan's Best Lifts

• Snatch: 182.5 kg in the 82.5 kg weight class.
• Snatch: 190.0 kg in the 90 kg weight class.
• Clean and jerk: 224.0 kg in the 82.5 kg weight class.
• Clean and jerk: 228.0 kg in the 90 kg weight class.
• Total: 405.0 kg in the 82.5 kg weight class.
• Total: 415.0 kg in the 90 kg weight class.

See also

In Spanish: Yuri Vardanyan para niños