Yuri Petrovich Vlasov

Yuri Vlasov after his Olympic victory in 1960

Yuri Petrovich Vlasov ( Russian Юрий Петрович Власов ; born December 5, 1935 in Makejewka , Ukrainian SSR , now Makijiwka, Ukraine ) is a former Soviet weightlifter .

Career

Yuri Vlasov was a cadet at the Suvorov War School in Saratov from 1946 to 1953 , where he received a good general education in boxing, swimming, athletics and cross-country games. He then studied at the flight engineering academy in Moscow until 1959 . He completed his studies as a lieutenant colonel engineer. In 1954 he got his first contact with weightlifting at the academy and began lifting weights himself. His first coach was S. Bogdasarow. His beginner performances were with a body weight of 90 kg: 80 kg in pushing, 75 kg in snatch and 95 kg in push. In December 1955 he had already reached 430 kg and in the summer of 1957 at 462.5 kg in the Olympic three-way battle. On the national stage, he drew attention to himself in 1958 at the USSR Championships, where he took 3rd place in the heavyweight division. From then on things went up quickly. Already in the next year Vlasov became world champion for the first time and 1960 Olympic champion . Also in 1960 he was named Europe's Sportsman of the Year by the Polish press agency Polska Agencja Prasowa (PAP) .

Overall, his successful career lasted until 1964. His best performance he achieved after the defeat at the 1964 Olympic Games against Leonid Shabotinsky on September 3, 1964 in Podolsk with 580 kg. In 1965 and 1966 he did not contest any competitions.

In 1967 he tried a comeback, but it did not succeed. Vlasov then resigned for good. Many years later, he took a detached stance on weightlifting in particular and exercise in general. He was now occupied with literature, wrote sketches, short stories and stories. Apparently he was also very successful. In an interview at the end of the 1960s, he told journalist Curt Riess a. a. with the fact that more than 400,000 copies of his book “Heller Moment” have sold.

In the 1980s he became president of the Soviet Weightlifting Association and took a critical anti-doping stance . He explained that weightlifting records would no longer be possible without anabolic steroids and that the price was too high for athletes. In the 1990s, Vlasov was also active in politics for several years: from 1989 to 1991 he was People's Deputy of the USSR and from 1993 to 1995 a member of the Duma . He came out strictly against the reform policy of Yeltsin . In 1996 he ran for the presidential election , but received only 0.2% of the vote.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship)

• 1958, 1st place , military Spartakiade of the Warsaw Pact states, with 480 kg, ahead of Cazan, Romania , 430 kg and Kurt Stemplinger, GDR , 375 kg;
• 1959, 1st place , World Championships in Warsaw , with 500 kg, ahead of James Bradford , USA , 492.5 kg and Ivan Vesselinov, Bulgaria , 455 kg;
• 1960, 1st place , EM in Milan , with 500 kg, in front of Vesselinov, 460 kg and Alberto Pigaiani, Italy , 445 kg;
• 1960, gold medal , OS in Rome , with 537.5 kg, ahead of Bradford, 512.5 kg and Norbert Schemansky , USA, 500 kg;
• 1961, 1st place , World Championships in Vienna , with 525 kg, ahead of Ronald Zirk, USA, 475 kg and Eino Mäkinen , Finland , 462.5 kg;
• 1962, 1st place , World Championships in Budapest , with 540 kg, ahead of Schemansky, 537.5 kg and Gary Gubner , USA, 497.5 kg;
• 1963, 1st place , World Championships in Stockholm with 552.5 kg, ahead of Schemansky and Leonid Schabotinski ;
• 1964, 1st place , EM in Moscow , with 562.5 kg, ahead of Károly Ecser , Hungary , 490 kg and Serge Reding , Belgium , 452.5 kg;
• 1964, silver medal , OS in Tokyo , with 570 kg, behind Schabotinsky, 572.5 kg and in front of Schemansky, 537.5 kg and Gubner, 512.5 kg.

USSR championships

• 1958, 3rd place, with 470 kg, behind Alexei Medvedev , 505 kg and Yevgeny Novikow , 480 kg;
• 1959, 1st place, with 495 kg, ahead of Novikow, 457.5 kg and Romasenko, 455 kg;
• 1960, 1st place, with 510 kg, ahead of Medvedev, 490 kg and Vilkovic, 462.5 kg;
• 1961, 1st place, with 550 kg, ahead of Schabotinski, 500 kg and Vilkovic, 485 kg;
• 1962, 1st place, with 522.5 kg, ahead of Schabotinski, 512.5 kg and Vilkovic, 475 kg;
• 1963, 1st place, with 542.5 kg, ahead of Schabotinski, 530 kg.

World records

(all heavyweight)

when pressing with both arms:

• 186 kg, 1959 in Moscow ,
• 188.5 kg, 1962 in Tbilisi ,
• 190.5 kg, 1963 in Vienna ,
• 192.5 kg, 1963 in Podolsk ,
• 196 kg, 1964 in Podolsk,
• 197.5 kg, 1964 in Tokyo ,
• 199 kg, 1967 in Moscow.

in two-armed tearing:

• 151.5 kg, 1959 in Leningrad ,
• 153 kg, 1959 in Warsaw ,
• 155.5 kg, 1960 in Leningrad,
• 163 kg, 1961 in Dnepropetrovsk ,
• 169 kg, 1964 in Moscow,
• 170.5 kg, 1964 in Podolsk,
• 172.5 kg, 1964 in Tokyo.

in two-armed thrusting:

• 197.5 kg, 1959 in Leningrad,
• 202 kg, 1960 in Rome ,
• 205 kg, 1960 in Kislovodsk ,
• 206 kg, 1961 in London ,
• 208 kg, 1961 in Schwedt ,
• 210.5 kg, 1961 in Dnepropetrovsk,
• 211 kg, 1962 in Oulu ,
• 212.5 kg 1963 in Stockholm ,
• 215.5 kg, 1964 in Podolsk.

in the Olympic three-way battle:

• 537.5 kg, 1960 in Rome,
• 550 kg, 1961 in Dnepropetrovsk,
• 552.5 kg, born in Stockholm in 1963,
• 557.5 kg, born in Podolsk in 1964,
• 562.5 kg, born in Moscow in 1964,
• 580 kg, 1964 in Podolsk.

Web links

Commons : Yuri Vlasov  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Yuri Vlasov in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Entry in the Hall of Fame (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Curt Riess: Lonely in front of a million eyes - great athletes and their fates. Bertelsmann Verlag, Gütersloh 1970, p. 160.
2. ↑ Sterile and impotent Der Spiegel November 30, 1987