Vasily Alekseyev
Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox sportsperson
Vasily Ivanovich Alekseyev (Template:Langx; 7 January 1942 – 25 November 2011) was a Soviet weightlifter. He set 80 world records[1] and 81 Soviet national records in weightlifting and won Olympic gold medals at the 1972 and 1976 games.[2]
Biography
At the age of 18, Alekseyev began practicing weightlifting at Trud VSS, trained by his coach Rudolf Plyukfelder until 1968, when he began to train solo. He was not a naturally large man like other super heavyweights but was encouraged to gain strength by adding weight. In January 1970, Alekseyev set his first world record, and during the 1970 World Weightlifting Championship in Columbus, he was the first man to clean and jerk 500 pounds (227 kg) in competition.[3] During one of his early world records, Oscar State OBE remarked that the weight of over 460 pounds (209 kg) in the Olympic press looked so easy it could have been a broomstick.[4] This was the beginning of a series of 80 world records Alekseyev set between 1970 and 1977. He received bonus funds by the Soviet government every time he set a world record (Soviet athletics were funded by the state), so he made it a point to gradually increase his world records by 1.1 pounds or 0.5 kg. He was unbeaten and held the World Championship and European Championship titles for those eight years. He was the first man to total over 600 kg in the triple event.[4]
Alekseyev's performance in the Moscow Olympics of 1980 was a disappointment. He had by then become more of a recluse, training by himself without a coach. In the snatch he set his opening weight too high and was unable to lift it, scoring zero kilograms as the result. He retired from weightlifting after the Moscow Olympics.[5][2]
In 1987, Alekseyev was elected to represent the Ryazan District for the Soviet Union's Congress of People's Deputies.[4] Alekseyev worked as a coach between 1990 and 1992. Under his leadership, the Unified Team earned ten medals in weightlifting at the 1992 Summer Olympics, including five golds.[6]
From 1966 Alekseyev lived in Shakhty, where in 1971 he graduated from the branch of the Novocherkassk Polytechnical Institute. He died on 25 November 2011 in Germany in a clinic where he had been sent for serious heart problems. He was 69.[5][7] The Russian Weightlifting Federation reported his death and called him a "Soviet sports legend" and "one of the strongest people in the world".[8] He was survived by wife Olimpiada and sons Sergey and Dmitry. Dmitry competed nationally in weightlifting, placing fourth at the 1988 Soviet weightlifting championships.[2]
Legacy and awards
Vladimir Vysotsky devoted his "Song about weightlifter" (Template:Langx, 1971) to Alekseyev.[9]
Alekseyev was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated 14 April 1975, titled "World's Strongest Man."[10] In 1999, in Greece, Alekseyev was acknowledged as the best sportsman of the 20th century. He was also awarded: Order of Lenin (1972), Order of Friendship of Peoples, Order of the Badge of Honour (1970), and Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1972). In 1993, he was elected a member of the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame.[11]
In Shakhty, where he lived much of his life, there is a street and park named after him,[12] as well as his monument installed in 2014.[13]
Career-bests
- Snatch: 190.0 kg (419 lbs) on 1 September 1977 in Podolsk;
- Clean and press: 236.5 kg (521 lbs) on 15 April 1972 in Tallinn;
- Clean and jerk: 256.0 kg (564 lbs) on 1 November 1977 in Moscow;
- Total: 645.0 kg (clean and press+snatch+clean and jerk), on 15 April 1972 in Tallinn, the official world record total in 1972;[14]
- Total: 445.0 kg (snatch + clean and jerk) in Podolsk.[15]
World records
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References
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- ↑ Original Russian text: "легендой советского спорта" and "один из сильнейших людей планеты". Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- ↑ Ivanova, Yekaterina (10 March 2012) В Шахтах появился проспект имени штангиста Василия Алексеева Template:Webarchive. rostov.kp.ru.
- ↑ Памятник легендарному штангисту Василию Алексееву открыт в Шахтах Ростовской области Template:Webarchive. tass.ru. 25 December 2014
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External links
- Template:Olympics.com profile
- Template:Olympedia
- Template:Lift Up profile
- Vasily Alexeev at the Lift Up Hall of Fame
Template:Footer Olympic Champions Weightlifting Super heavyweight Template:Footer World Champions Weightlifting Men Super heavyweight Template:Authority control
- Pages with reference errors
- Pages with script errors
- 1942 births
- 2011 deaths
- Communist Party of the Soviet Union members
- Olympic weightlifters for the Soviet Union
- Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union
- Russian male weightlifters
- Soviet male weightlifters
- Weightlifting coaches
- Weightlifters at the 1972 Summer Olympics
- Weightlifters at the 1976 Summer Olympics
- Weightlifters at the 1980 Summer Olympics
- Olympic medalists in weightlifting
- Olympic coaches
- Russian strength athletes
- Soviet strength athletes
- Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples
- Recipients of the Order of Lenin
- Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
- Members of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union
- Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics
- Sportspeople from Ryazan Oblast
- European Weightlifting Championships medalists
- World Weightlifting Championships medalists
- 20th-century Russian sportsmen