Kazakhstan's former long-term President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has challenged sports organizers to engage 30 percent of the country's population in sports. The state has numerous sports clubs where people participate in various types of sports; sport facilities are available to the general public. Kazakhstan currently hosts major international tournaments; Astana and Almaty hosted the VII Asian Winter Games 2011, which drew teams from 27 countries.
David Adamovich Rigert is a retired Soviet weightlifter and weightlifting coach of Austrian ancestry. During his career he set 65 ratified world records and won an Olympic gold medal in 1976 and six world titles. In 1999 he was inducted to the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame.
Yurik Sarkisyan is a former Soviet Armenian weightlifter. He was awarded the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR title in 1982. In 2007, Yurik Sarkisyan included into the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame weightlifting.
Yuri Norayrovich Vardanyan was a Soviet Armenian weightlifter. 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. He earned the title Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR in 1977 and was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1985. In 1994 he was elected a member of the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame.
Isaac "Ike" Berger was an American weightlifter, in the featherweight division, who competed for the United States at the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympics and won one gold and two silver medals. He held eight world records, and won the United States national title eight times. In the highest level international competition, he was world featherweight champion in 1958 and 1961, and was the runner-up for that title in 1957, 1959, and 1963.
Sultan Saburovych Rakhmanov was an Olympic weightlifter for the USSR who won the gold medal in the super heavyweight class of the 1980 Summer Olympics. Sultan Rakhmanov won the super heavyweight gold medal in 1980 in Moscow when his legendary teammate Vasily Alekseyev was eliminated after he failed three times to snatch 180 kg. Rakhmanov made 6 perfect lifts to score a decisive victory at the 1980 Olympics. He also won gold medals at the World Weightlifting Championships in 1979 and 1980.
A wide array of sports are played in Armenia. Popular sports in Armenia include football, basketball, volleyball, and ice hockey. Further, the country sends athletes to the Olympics in boxing, wrestling, weightlifting, judo, gymnastics, track and field, diving, swimming, and shooting. Armenia's mountainous terrain provides great opportunities for the practice of sports like skiing and rock climbing. Being a landlocked country, water sports can only be practiced on lakes, notably Lake Sevan. Competitively, Armenia has been very successful at chess, weightlifting, and wrestling at the international level. Armenia is also an active member of the international sports community, with full membership in the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), Federation of International Bandy (FIB), International School Sport Federation, International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), among others. It also hosts the Pan-Armenian Games.
Eduard Teodorovich Vinokurov was a Soviet Russian Olympic champion and world champion sabre fencer.
Gavriil Dmitriyevich Kachalin was a Soviet and Russian football player and coach.
Albert Azaryan was a Soviet and Armenian artistic gymnast who competed internationally representing the Soviet Union. He was the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Champion on the still rings. Azaryan was the first gymnast to become an Olympic Champion in rings twice, a feat that Akinori Nakayama would also accomplish twelve years later and that no one else has matched since. He was the first person to do one of the rings most famous variations of the Iron Cross called the Azaryan Cross, which incorporates a quarter turn to the side.
Oksen Mirzoyan is a former Armenian weightlifter and European, World and Olympic Champion. Mirzoyan was awarded the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR title in 1984 and the Honored Coach of Armenia title in 1998.
Aleksey Ivanovich Vakhonin was a former Russian weightlifter and Olympic champion who competed for the Soviet Union. He won a gold medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Robert Fein was an Austrian Olympic Champion weightlifter, winning the gold medal in the lightweight class at the 1936 Summer Olympics. The following year, he won the silver medal at the 1937 World Weightlifting Championships, and set his 23rd world record that year. One year later, he was barred from competing in weightlifting, because he was Jewish, and he never competed again.
Sport plays an important role in Estonian culture. Estonia first competed as a nation at the 1920 Summer Olympics, although the National Olympic Committee was established in 1923. Estonian athletes took part at every Olympic Games until the country was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. The 1980 Summer Olympics sailing regatta was held in the capital city Tallinn. Estonia has won most of its Olympic medals in wrestling, athletics, weightlifting, and cross-country skiing.
Israel Militosyan is an Armenian former weightlifter. He was awarded the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR title in 1989.
Valerios Leonidis is a Greek former Olympic medalist weightlifter and current weightlifting trainer. He has won Olympic silver medal at 1996 Atlanta Olympic games in 64 kg division. Also two silver and one bronze World Championship medals. He has competed in different weight classes from 60 kg to 69 kg. His rivalry with world-record holder Naim Süleymanoğlu in the men's 64 kg was a very popular part of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, in which he won the silver medal.
Weightlifting was introduced to Armenia in the late 1920s and became widely practiced after World War II. Today, it is one of the country's most popular sports. The sport is regulated by the Armenian Weightlifting Federation. The first weightlifters from Soviet Armenia made successful appearances on the international stage in the 1970s. Vardan Militosyan won a silver at the 1976 Olympics, and later Yurik Vardanyan became an Olympic, World and European champion through the late 1970s and the early 1980s. Oksen Mirzoyan and Yurik Sarkisyan rose to top positions in the 1980s. After its independence from the Soviet Union, Armenia successfully held its weightlifting traditions and continues to be one of the strongest nations in Europe. In 2008, the Armenia team placed first at the European Championship. In the 2008 Summer Olympics Armenia won three bronze medals. Tigran Gevorg Martirosyan is Armenia's only world champion with his successful appearance in 2010.
Mohamed Ehab Youssef Ahmed Mahmoud, known as Mohamed Mahmoud or Mohamed Ehab, is an Egyptian weightlifter, and World Champion competing in the 77 kg category until 2018 and 81 kg starting in 2018 after the International Weightlifting Federation reorganized the categories.
John Basil Terpak was an American world champion weightlifter.
Jouni Johannes Grönman, is a Finnish former weightlifter who competed at four Olympic Games won a bronze medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Soviet Union
