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    Emil Lazarian
  • 7 years ago
    • Categories: 2018

Sports: Legendary Armenian weightlifter Yuri Vardanyan dies at 62

Panorama, Armenia
Nov 2 2018
Society 14:07 02/11/2018 Armenia

World-famous Armenian weightlifter, Olympic champion Yuri Vardanyan has passed away after long illness at the age of 62.

He died in the United States, where he was living, the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs told Panorama.am.

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.

He was a seven-time World and 5-time European Champion. He earned the title Honoured Master of Sports of the Soviet Union in 1977 and was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1985. In 1994 he was elected member of the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame.

In 2009 Vardanyan became then President Serzh Sargsyan’s adviser and was appointed sports minister in May 2013. In June, he was appointed Armenia’s ambassador to Georgia.

Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS