Vasily Ivanovich Alekseyev was a Soviet weightlifter. He set 80 world-records and 81 Soviet records in weightlifting and won Olympic gold medals at the 1972 and 1976 games.
Leonid Ivanovich Zhabotinsky was a Ukrainian weightlifter who set 19 world records in the superheavyweight class, and won gold medals at the 1964 and 1968 Olympic Games.
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.
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.
Mohammad Nasiri Seresht is a retired Iranian weightlifter. He competed at the 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1976 Olympics and won a gold, a silver and a bronze medal. He also won gold medals at the Asian Games in 1966, 1970 and 1974 and at the world championships in 1968-70 and 1973–74, placing second in 1972 and third in 1966, 1971 and 1976. Between 1966 and 1973 he set 15 ratified world records: 10 in clean and jerk, 3 in the press and 2 in the total. In 1995 he was inducted into 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.
Yury Petrovich Vlasov was a Soviet and Russian heavyweight weightlifter, writer and politician. He competed at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics and won a gold medal in 1960 and a silver in 1964; at both games, he was the Olympic flag bearer for the Soviet Union. During his career, Vlasov won four world titles and set 31 ratified world records. He retired in 1968 and became a prominent writer and later a politician. He was a member of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union (1989) and then of the Russian State Duma (1993) and took part in the 1996 Russian presidential election.
Imre Földi was a Hungarian weightlifter. Competing at a record of five Olympic Games, he won a gold medal in 1972 and silver medals in 1964 and 1968.
Rafael Arkadyevich Chimishkyan was a Georgian weightlifter who competed for the Soviet Union and Olympic, World, European and Soviet Champion. Chimishkyan was awarded the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR title in 1952. He was an honorary citizen of Tbilisi.
Viktor Grigoryevich Kurentsov was a Soviet middleweight weightlifter. He competed at the 1964 and 1968 Olympics and won a silver and a gold medal, respectively.
Aleksandr Pavlovich Kurynov was a Soviet and Russian weightlifter. He won a gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics and three world titles in 1961–1963. He also set 15 world records between 1958 and 1964: two in the press, four in the snatch, four in the clean and jerk, and five in the total.
Ivan Vasilevich Udodov was a Russian weightlifter who won an Olympic gold medal in 1952 and a world title in 1953, both in the bantamweight category (−56 kg). He then moved to the featherweight (−60 kg) class and won silver medals at the world championships of 1954 and 1955. In 1952–54 Udodov set four world records: one in the press, one in the snatch, and two in the total.
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.
Yevgeny Gavrilovich Minayev was a Russian weightlifter who competed for the Soviet Union. He won a silver medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics and a gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics.
Viktor Georgievich Bushuev was a Soviet and Russian weightlifter. During his career, he won three world titles (1957–1959) and an Olympic gold medal (1960), and set three official and two unofficial world records, all in the total.
Vladimir Iosifovich Kaplunov was a Russian weightlifter. He won a world title in 1962 and a silver medal at the 1964 Olympics.
Israel Militosyan is an Armenian former weightlifter. He was awarded the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR title in 1989.
Vardan Militosyan was a Soviet Armenian former weightlifter. He was awarded the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR title in 1976.
Gennady Timofeyevich Chetin was a Russian bantamweight weightlifter. He competed at the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics and finished in fourth and third place, respectively. He became a world champion in 1971 and set three ratified world records in the total: in 1968, 1971 and 1973.
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.
