Leonid Zhabotinsky

Leonid Zhabotinskiy is a Soviet heavyweight weightlifter. Two-time Olympic champion (1964, 1968) in weightlifting, world champion (1964-1966, 1968), European champion (1966, 1968), five-time champion of the USSR (1964-1969). Set 19 world records, 20 USSR records. In childhood and adolescence, he was fond of various sports: wrestling, boxing, athletics. After the eighth grade, he went to work at the Kharkov Tractor Plant and at the same time was engaged in the weightlifting section. Zhabotinskiy first performed at the championship of the Ukrainian SSR in 1957, where he took third place (415 kg in total). In 1958 he became a master of sports. In 1961, at the USSR championship in Dnepropetrovsk, he gained 500 kg and became the second in heavyweight. In 1963 he set the first world record (165 kg in snatch), became a member of the USSR national team and took third place at the World Championships in Stockholm. At the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964, in the sharpest rivalry with Yury Vlasov, he set Olympic records in the sum (572.5 kg) and snatch (167.5), the world record in clean and jerk (217.5 kg) and, ahead of the competitor by 2.5 kg, became the champion. The success was repeated at the next Olympics in Mexico City in 1968. Zhabotinskiy was the flagbearer of the Soviet team at this Olympiad. His last world record was set in 1974 at the Military Forces Championship (snatch, 185.5 kg).