Historically, 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 in the 1912. [1] The first Armenian to win a medal was Hal Haig Prieste, a son of Armenian immigrants, who won a bronze medal in diving in the 1920 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 independent in 1991, it and other former Soviet states (except the Baltic states) were part of the Unified Team in 1992. 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, Armenia participates separately. Some Armenian athletes, including ethnic Armenians born abroad and those who emigrated from Armenia, compete under other flags.
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) [a] [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
| By sport
| By country
|
Medal | Name | Country | Games | Sport | Event | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Grigory Mkrtychan | ![]() | 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo | Ice hockey | Men's tournament | |
![]() | Vicki Movsessian | ![]() | 1998 Nagano | Ice hockey | Women's tournament | |
![]() | Evgenia Medvedeva | ![]() | 2018 Pyeongchang | Figure skating | Team event | |
![]() | Evgenia Medvedeva | ![]() | 2018 Pyeongchang | Figure skating | Ladies' singles | |
By games
| By sport
| By country
|
...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.