Historically, [a] only a portion of ethnic Armenian athletes and athletes of Armenian descent have competed for Armenia in the Olympic Games. Classical Armenian historians attest that Armenian kings Tiridates III and Varazdat were recorded as champions in the Ancient Olympic Games. The first Armenians to participate in modern Olympics were athletes Mkrtich Mkryan and Vahram Papazyan, who represented the Ottoman Empire at the 1912 Stockholm Games. [1] The first Armenian to win a medal was Hal Haig Prieste, a son of Armenian immigrants, who won a bronze medal in diving at the 1920 Antwerp Games for the United States. [2] Soviet Armenian gymnast Hrant Shahinyan became the first Armenian gold medalist of the modern Olympics in 1952.
From 1952 to 1988, most Armenian athletes represented the Soviet Union. Although Armenia became an independent state in 1991, during the 1992 Barcelona Games Armenia and other former Soviet states (except the Baltic states) were part of the Unified Team. The National Olympic Committee of Armenia was founded in 1990 and became an International Olympic Committee member in 1993. [3] Since the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, the Republic of Armenia participates separately, but some Armenian athletes still compete under foreign flags, including ethnic Armenians born abroad and those who emigrated from Armenia.
Although athletics never spread into Armenia in antiquity, [4] two Armenian kings may have been champions in the ancient Olympic Games. [5] According to Agathangelos (further corroborated by Movses Khorenatsi), one of the most prominent ancient Armenian kings, Tiridates III, who is best known for converting Armenia to Christianity in the early 4th century, was an Olympic champion prior to his reign. [6] [7] [8] Modern scholars have calculated his victory in wrestling at the 265th Olympics in 281 AD, aged 22–23. [9]
Later king Varazdat (Varazdates), also from the Arsacid dynasty, who reigned between 374 and 378, [10] has been widely cited as the last Olympic victor known by name, with a victory in fisticuffs (boxing) [b] [12] in 385 AD. [23] [24] It is supported by a memorial plate at the museum in Olympia, Greece. [25] Other authors have placed the event in 369, [26] [27] [28] [29] 365, [30] or 393. [31] According to Movses Khorenatsi, while a prince living at the court of Roman Emperor Valens in Constantinople, he won the "pugilistic contest" by killing lions. [32] According to Remijsen, Varazdates is the highest up the social ladder of all late-antique athletes. [33] His victory, however, has been questioned in recent decades. Young noted that his "supposed victory is attested only in a murky Armenian source" (Movses Khorenatsi). [34] While Nina Garsoïan considered the purported victories of Tiridates and Varazdates "improbable" and "unlikely." [35] [36]
By games
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Medal | Name | Country | Games | Sport | Event | Ref |
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Gold | Grigory Mkrtychan | Soviet Union | 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo | Ice hockey | Men's tournament | |
Gold | Vicki Movsessian | United States | 1998 Nagano | Ice hockey | Women's tournament | |
Silver | Evgenia Medvedeva | OAR | 2018 Pyeongchang | Figure skating | Team event | |
Silver | Evgenia Medvedeva | OAR | 2018 Pyeongchang | Figure skating | Ladies' singles | |
By games
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Félix Savón Fabre is a Cuban former amateur boxer who competed from 1980 to 2000. Considered one of the all-time greatest amateurs, he became three-time Olympic gold medalist, and the World Champion six times in a row, all in the heavyweight division. In 1988, when he was favored by many to win the gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics, the Cuban government boycotted the event. Savón is particularly known for having rejected numerous multimillion-dollar offers to defect and leave Cuba permanently to fight Mike Tyson as a professional.
Vakhtang "Vic" Darchinyan is an Armenian former professional boxer who competed from 2000 to 2017. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the IBF flyweight title from 2004 to 2007; and the WBA, WBC, IBF, and lineal super-flyweight titles between 2008 and 2010. Additionally, he held a record four IBO titles at flyweight, super-flyweight, and twice at bantamweight between 2005 and 2011. A southpaw with a highly unique fighting style and formidable punching power, Darchinyan became the first Armenian boxer to win a world title in 2004.
Varazdat was the king of Arsacid Armenia from 374/375 until 378. He was installed on the throne by the Roman emperor Valens after the assassination of his kinsman King Pap.
Ancient Greek boxing dates back to at least the 8th century BC, and was practiced in a variety of social contexts in different Greek city-states. Most extant sources about ancient Greek boxing are fragmentary or legendary, making it difficult to reconstruct the rules, customs and history surrounding this activity in great detail. Still, it is clear that gloved boxing bouts were a significant part of ancient Greek athletic culture throughout the early classical period.
Vladimir Yengibaryan was a Soviet and Armenian light-welterweight boxer. He was an Olympic champion, three-time European champion and three-time Soviet champion. In 1956, he was named the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR and awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. During his career he won 255 out of 267 bouts.
The ancient Olympic Games, or the ancient Olympics, were a series of athletic competitions among representatives of city-states and one of the Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece. They were held at the Panhellenic religious sanctuary of Olympia, in honor of Zeus, and the Greeks gave them a mythological origin. The originating Olympic Games are traditionally dated to 776 BC. The games were held every four years, or Olympiad, which became a unit of time in historical chronologies. These Olympiads were referred to based on the winner of their stadion sprint, e.g., "the third year of the eighteenth Olympiad when Ladas of Argos won the stadion". They continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule in the 2nd century BC. Their last recorded celebration was in AD 393, under the emperor Theodosius I, but archaeological evidence indicates that some games were still held after this date. The games likely came to an end under Theodosius II, possibly in connection with a fire that burned down the temple of the Olympian Zeus during his reign.
Mangte Chungneijang "Mary" Kom is an Indian Olympic boxer, politician, and former Member of Rajya Sabha. She is the only woman to win the World Amateur Boxing Championship six times, the only female boxer to have won a medal in each one of the first seven World Championships, and the only boxer to win eight World Championship medals. Nicknamed Magnificent Mary, she was the only Indian female boxer to have qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics, where she competed in the flyweight (51 kg) category and won a bronze medal. She had also been ranked as the world's No. 1 female light-flyweight by the International Boxing Association (amateur) (AIBA). She became the first Indian female boxer to win a gold medal in the Asian Games in 2014 at Incheon, South Korea and is the first Indian female boxer to win gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. She is also the only boxer to become Asian Amateur Boxing Champion for a record six times. Mary Kom won the 51kg gold in President's Cup in Indonesia.
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Boxing in Armenia is a popular sport, that existed in the Armenian Highland since ancient times. Amateur boxing schools in the country appeared in early 1900s, by the mid-1950s boxing became one of the traditional sports in Armenia. In 1956, Vladimir Yengibaryan won a gold medal at the Olympics for the Soviet team. In the early 21st century, professional and amateur boxing in Armenia reached another peak. Most notably Arthur Abraham and Vic Darchinyan won several professional world champion titles. Dozens of amateur boxers have been placed in the top 3 of world and European competitions for various weight categories. Vladimir Yengibarian was among the first individuals to open professional boxing schools in Armenia. The sport is regulated by the Armenian Boxing Federation.
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.
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...Hal Haig Prieste, an American of Armenian descent... In 1896, Prieste's parents and an older brother fled Armenia during a time of violent conflict.
...the year 385 A. D., with which is to be associated the name of the last recorded Olympic victor, a boxer, Varasted or Varazdates by name, a Persian Arsacid, from Armenia.
The last Olympic victor whose name we know is the Armenian Prince Varazdates, who won the boxing in the 291st Olympiad (A. D. 385).
Varazdates – By a strange irony of fate the last recorded victor of the national (Olympic) games was Varazdates, a Persian Ascarid from Armenia, who won the boxing in A.D. 385
It was Varazdates, an Armenian prince, a descendant of the Arsacids, who in the year 385 received the wreath for boxing.
385: Varazdates, last named crowned victor in the ancient Olympic Games
Under the tolerant, assimilating Romans, the Olympics became polyglot and the last Olympic victor of whom we have record was an Armenian prince, Varaztad, who won a boxing match in A.D. 385.
Fittingly, the last champion for whom there is evidence was not a Greek, but an Armenian boxer named Varaztad.
This explains how in the two hundred and ninety first Olympiad (385 B.C.) the victory was carried off by the Armenian pugilist, Varasdates, a descendant of the royal family of Arsacides, who became later the king of Armenia. This Varasdates was the last conqueror in the Olympic Games known to us.
Varazdat, son of Anop, king of Armenia (374-378 CE) and boxer, fourth century CE. Varazdat, a boxer, is one of the latest Olympic victors we can identify by name. [Moses Chorenaçi 3.40.]
One of the latest recorded names of victors at Olympia is that of Varazdates, a Persian from Armenia who won the boxing title in 385 AD.
Varazdates, a Arsacid from Armenia who won in boxing in A.D. 369.
The date of the last Olympic is as uncertain as the date of the first. Until quite recently, the last known victor was the Armenian prince Varazdat, who won the boxing competition in 369 A.D., but an inscription discovered at Olympia in 1994 gives the names of several athletes whose victories came as late as 385 A.D. If Theodosius I decreed an end to the Olympics in 394, as some scholars believe, then the last games took place in 393. (The evidence for this belief comes from an eleventh-century manuscript by Georgios Kedrenos.)
Not only does the honour of being the last known Olympian no longer belong to Varazdat(es) of Armenia in AD 369, but it is significant for our understanding of the "end" of the Games that these latest Olympians came from Athens, not from distant parts if the ancient world.
Although the Roman conquest initially involved a vast diminution in the games' prestige, they now become open to at least some non-Greeks (the last known victor, of boxing in AD 369, was Varazdates, the crown prince of Armenia).
A.D. 365 - The last Olympic victor on record is the Armenian prince Varazdate, who won the boxing in the 291st Olympiad. A.D. 393 - Last official Olympic Games (the 293rd). The victors' names are lost.
Վարազդատը աղբյուրներում հայտնի է որպես բազմակողմանի զարգացած մարզիկ (ըստ Մովսես Խորենացու՝ կորովի նետաձիգ, ճարտար գազանամարտիկ, սուսերամարտիկ, ըմբշամարտիկ, բռնցքամարտիկ): Նրա անունը դրոշմվել է մարմարյա սալիկին՝ որպես վերջին օլիմպիադայի (393) չեմպիոնի:
For centuries and even a decade ago, historians thought that the very last known Olympic victor probably was not a Greek, but an Armenian prince named Varazdates. Varazdates' supposed victory is attested only in a murky Armenian source (Moses of Khoren, History of Armenia 3.40).1 Since Varazdates reigned from 374-8, conjectures place his rather doubtful victory, mentioned only in an Armenian history of Armenia, in the 360s ad.
BP brief reference to Varazdat's vigor and "valiant heart" is elaborated by MX, III.xl (= MK, pp. 301-302) into an Olympic victory at Pisa and other unlikely epic feats.
His father, an Armenian-born discus thrower, and his mother, a Ukrainian volleyball player, had met at the Kiev State Institute of Physical Education, and both taught there while he was growing up.
The mother, who came from a prominent Armenian family, which found refuge in Bulgaria after the 1896 Armenian massacres in the Ottoman Empire, was the best Bulgarian tennis player in the 1960s.
Мама у меня русская, папа действительно армянин, я даже в прошлом году участвовала в Ереване в Панармянских играх, мне факел на торжественном открытии доверили.
Отец мой действительно армянин, из Ленинакана.
Ведь мама – армянка, а папа – полукровка, наполовину армянин.
У меня папа полукровка. Дед был русский, а бабушка – армянка
My father is Armenian. By the way, I've never been to Armenia.
У меня мама армянка.
Об отце Евгении было известно только одно: его зовут Арман Бабасян, он предприниматель из Армении.
Also I want to note that one of the young stars of Russian figure skating, Evgenia Medvedeva is an Armenian, her real name is Babasyan.