It would be good if someone asked Arayik Harutyunyan a question: do you have the right to be the president of the Weightlifting Federation, and doesn’t Gagik Tsarukyan have the right to be the president of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia?

What do you have to do with sports in general, what is your athletic trajectory, what knowledge do you have about weightlifting?

In 2004, when Gagik Tsarukyan, at the age of 48, assumed the duties of the president of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia and Armenian sports were in a shamefully difficult condition, many people asked if he needed it. The sports schools were half-ruined, the infrastructures were destroyed, the successes in the international arena were few, the athletes were neglected. In many sports schools, there were not even basic conditions for training, athletes were emigrating, Armenian sports faced serious challenges.

But Gagik Tsarukyan’s position was clear: this is a matter of his honor and the country’s dignity and no difficulty can scare him. During the two decades of his tenure, dozens of sports schools were built and renovated, provided with sports equipment, many of the emigrant athletes returned and started to compete under the tricolor, a new culture of encouraging and rewarding athletes was established. The Armenian sports world was revived, and our compatriots around the world had many opportunities to be proud of the victories of our athletes, our tricolor was raised thousands of times on the most prestigious international platforms and the national anthem was played.

The vast majority of these victories have always been won by our weightlifters, because weightlifting has become our most medal-winning sport after years of hard work and huge investments by Gagik Tsarukyan.

Now ask Arayik Harutyunyan: how did you end up as the president of the Weightlifting Federation, what promises did you make about improving Armenia’s position in the international weightlifting family, which you never fulfilled, and in the end, did the Armenian sports world accept you as the president of the federation?
My questions are not rhetorical…

Iveta Tonoyan

—