Weightlifter Yury Vlasov: biography, family, sports achievements

"This remarkable man stands apart in the history of world sports. Clean and decent, without any doping. This is the kind of real Olympic champion - an intellectual, an intellectual, an athlete with a capital letter and just a citizen of his country "- such an assessment that a Soviet weightlifter received from the lips of People's Artist of the USSR Yuri Nikulin. In another way, perhaps, you will not say. The owner of Olympic gold in Rome, the winner of four world championships and six European championships - all this he, weightlifter Yuri Vlasov, whose biography became an example for imitation of future generations of young weightlifters.

From father to son

The future Olympic champion in Ukraine, in the city of Makeevka, Donetsk region, was born. December 5, 1935 in the family of a Soviet intelligence officer and diplomat Peter Parfenovich Vlasov and hereditary Kuban Cossack Maria Danilovna Vlasova (nee Lymar) was born Vlasov Yuri Petrovich. About the father of the future multiple champion in weightlifting should tell a little more.

After graduating from the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies in 1937, P. P. Vlasov all his later life was connected with the Main Intelligence Directorate. On instructions from the Telegraph Agency, he was sent by a military correspondent to China, where he worked until 1946. Weightlifter Yuri Vlasov will describe all this in the future in the book "The Special District of China". Biography of Peter Parfyonovich in the postwar years was associated with diplomatic work. Shortly before his death in July 1952, the father of the future great weightlifter was appointed extraordinary ambassador of the Soviet state in the Republic of Burma.

Unfortunately, after the presentation of his credentials, Pyotr Vlasov was unable to begin his diplomatic duties. Vlasov Yuri Petrovich lives his whole life proud of his father, a man of amazingly bright destiny, which he repeatedly wrote in his books devoted to childhood and his way in sports.

Weightlifter Yury Vlasov: biography of a young athlete

With the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, Maria Vlasova, with her two children, Boris and Yuri, was forced to move to the Urals. It was there, in the Russian outback, the head of one of the Moscow libraries instilled in her children a love of literature, which later affected the fate of Yuri Petrovich. In his childhood, the boy was fascinated by the mysterious adventures and travels of his favorite literary heroes, and he also wanted to become a military correspondent, like his father. It was decided that Yuri entered the military school.

The first victory ...

The first Soviet weightlifter Yuri Vlasov set the first records in the walls of the Saratov Suvorov School, which he graduated with honors in 1953. Over the years the developed musculature of Suvorov Vlasov allowed him to easily win at various city competitions. By the age of fifteen, Yuri Petrovich weighed about 90 kilograms, but it was one musculature-not a single gram of excess fat. The first category in skis and skates, the second category is athletics. At the All-Union championship among the cadets of Nakhimov and Suvorov schools in the shot put and throwing grenades, a young man becomes a prize-winner. In addition, in his track record of sporting achievements - the championship of the city of Saratov in freestyle wrestling.

The life of Yuri Vlasov more and more resembles sports, nevertheless it does not prevent him from enrolling in the Military Engineering Academy named after NE Zhukovsky. Successful studies at the academy make it possible to obtain higher military education, as a result of which, after completing his studies, Yuri acquires the specialty of a radio engineer.

... And the first setbacks

It was in the walls of the military high school that Vlasov was seriously taken for the first time by the barbell. Under the guidance of the coach of the sports school of CSKA Bagdasarov Suren Petrosovich cadet Yuri Vlasov in 1957 sets the record of the Soviet Union (a jerk - 144.5 kg, push - 183 kg) and becomes a master of sports. In the same year, a fateful event occurred.

Natalia Modorova, a student of the Surikov art school, came to the training hall of CSKA Moscow, who needed to make sports sketches. Young people met, and soon got married. The first failure, which entailed the first serious injury, suffered the athlete in Lviv. Not holding a record weight at the competitions, weightlifter Yuri Vlasov, whose biography is described in this article, is injured in the spine. Only the dedication of the wife, the perseverance of the coaches and the will of Vlasov himself helped the future champion of the Olympic Games to return to the platform. From now on, the whole world will know him.

XVII Olympic Games in Rome

Having seized the world leadership since 1959 in heavy weight, Yuri Vlasov for five years did not concede any weightlifter of the world.

09/10/1960. On the Olympic platform in Rome, Soviet athlete Yuri Vlasov. His main rivals James Bradford and Melbourne (1956) Olympic champion Paul Anderson have already fulfilled their mandatory program, and everyone is waiting for the performance of the 25-year-old weightlifter from the USSR. The press is 180 kg, the jerk is 155 kg, the push is 202.5 kg. The amount is 537.5 kg. This is not only the gold of the Olympics, it is the triumph of Soviet sport, it's a new world record!

Brief summary of the champion

• Warsaw. World and European Championship, 1959. The press is 160 kg, the jerk is 147.5 kg, the push is 192, 5 kg. The amount is 500 kg. Yuri Vlasov is the champion of the world and Europe.
• Milan. European Championship, 1960. The press is 170 kg, the jerk is 145 kg, the push is 185 kg. The amount is 500 kg. Yuri Vlasov is already a two-time European champion.
• Vein. World Championship and Europe, 1961. The total weight in the eventing is 525 kg. Yuri Vlasov becomes a two-time world champion and three-time European champion.
• Budapest. World Championship and Europe, 1962. The total result in triathlon is 540 kg. The Soviet weightlifter becomes the third time champion of the world and takes the fourth gold medal of Europe.
• Stockholm World and European Championship, 1963. With the result in triathlon 557.5 kg Yuri Petrovich takes the gold of the championship. This is the fourth gold medal of the world championship and the fifth award of the highest test of the European Championship.
• Moscow. European Championship, 1964. Based on the results of the three types of exercises, the Soviet athlete sets a new world record and for the sixth time becomes the strongest weightlifter in Europe.

Favorite of the Tokyo Olympics

The main rival of Yuri Vlasov at the Olympic Games in Tokyo (1964) was Leonid Zhabotinsky. For the duel of these two great athletes followed the whole world. In weightlifting Olympic discipline, press Vlasov sets a world record, ahead of his teammate by 10 kg. In a jerk, Leonid Zhabotinsky takes 167.5 kg, thereby reducing the gap to 5 kg. Yu Vlasov weighs 162.5 kg only from the third attempt. The gold of the Olympic Games was played out in a jerk.

In the first approach L. Zhabotinsky fixes 200 kg. Vlasov's weight is 205 kg, and then 210 kg, which are also overcome by Jabotinsky. On the scoreboard - the figure is 217.5, this is higher than the world record. The hall froze in anticipation. Two attempts by athletes to take a record weight were unsuccessful.

The fate of Olympic gold is decided by the third, final approach. If none of the athletes take this weight, the victory is awarded to Yu. Vlasov, since he has his own weight of 136.4 kg against 154.4 kg of the opponent. The first appears on the platform Olympic champion in 1960, Yuri Vlasov, who can not take the weight. Leonid Zhabotinsky approaches the bar, and here the weight is taken.

The gold medal of the Olympic Games in Tokyo is taken by a fellow from Ukraine, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR Leonid Zhabotinsky, a future two-time Olympic champion, four-time world champion and two-time European champion.

Silver is won by Yuri Vlasov. Training after the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the weightlifter no longer attended. Only two years later, because of financial difficulties, Yuri Vlasov returned to the big sport and in April 1967 at the Moscow Championship set his last record and said goodbye to great sports. In total for his sports career, Yuri Petrovich has set 31 world record. In addition to appearances on the international arena, the weightlifter became three times champion of the USSR and the winner of the two Spartakiads of the peoples of the USSR.

Idol of millions

A 17-year-old Austrian boy, the future 38th governor of the state of California, USA, Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger, watched the fight of two great weightlifters of our time at the Olympics in Tokyo. It was the victory of Yuri Vlasov in the international arena that inspired the future idol of all the boys of the 70s and 80s to take part in sports. Yuri Vlasov and Schwarzenegger met twice: in 1960 in Austria and in 1988 in the Soviet Union.

The Conquest of the Literary Olympus

Since 1959, Yuri Vlasov has tried himself as a writer. The first person to notice the literary abilities of a weightlifter was Lev Kassil, who recommended Yu. Vlasov to seriously tackle writing. Already in 1961, for the best story about the sport, he became a laureate of the second prize of the republican contest, organized by the newspaper "Soviet Sport".

In Budapest, at the World Cup in 1962, Vlasov goes not only for sports victories, but also as a special correspondent for the Izvestia newspaper to cover the events of the championship. As a writer Yuri Vlasov, whose books began to be printed since 1964, was held in 1968. It is in this year that the athlete resigns in the title of captain and is seriously immersed in literary activity, thereby becoming a professional writer.

Yury Vlasov: books

The first book, which collected stories about sports, was called "Myself to overcome." This collection of stories came out on the eve of the Olympics in Tokyo. Then, in 1972, his novel "The White Moment" came out, and already in 4 years - the novel "Salty Joys". Between the publication of these literary works, in 1973, the novel "A special district of China" was published, where the author, under the pseudonym Yuri Vladimirov, tells about his father's life and activities.

In 1984, in the book "Justice of Force", the author reflects on the difficult life of champions, the history of weightlifting and his contribution to this sport. The monumental work of the writer is the three-volume "Fiery Cross", this book, according to Yu. Vlasov, is a historical confession about the revolution of 1917. Many literary works of the writer did not come out.

Because of the trauma of the spine, Yuri Petrovich for a long time was on treatment. He suffered several operations, and there were moments when the athlete was on the verge of life and death. Wife and children of Yuri Vlasov were always there, helping to overcome all difficulties.

Further public and political activities

• From 1985 to 1987, Yuri Petrovich headed the Federation of Weightlifting of the Soviet Union.
• From 1987 to 1988 he was the president of the newly created Federation of athletic gymnastics (bodybuilding) of the country.
• From 1989 to 1991, Yu. P. Vlasov was elected in the parliament of the USSR.
• 1992 year. The writer sharply criticizes the government's reform course in the newspaper "Kurants", urging all the country's leaders to resign.
• From 1993 to 1995, Yuri Petrovich represents the deputy corps in the State Duma of Russia, running in 1994 for the post of head of this department.
• In 1996, after an unsuccessful presidential campaign in which Yu. P. Vlasov put forward his candidacy for the post of head of state, he departed from political and public activities. Following the vote, presidential candidate Yury Vlasov scored 0.2% of the vote.

Interesting facts from the life of Yu. P. Vlasov

• In the year of his seventieth birthday, Yuri Petrovich set a record. Lying on his back, he was able to squeeze out one hundred and eighty-five pounds, while the athlete's personal weight is one hundred and ten kilograms.
• Training four times a week, a veteran of Soviet sports is in great physical shape.
• The former athlete still heads a volleyball team of veterans in the suburbs.
• After the Olympic Games in Rome he was awarded the title of the strongest man on the planet.
• In one of his interviews Yuri Vlasov said: "It is a pity that everything is so unfaithful in this life. I have so many interesting literary ideas that if they are put into practice, it will take about sixty years. "

Do not get old soul veterans

What is Yury Vlasov doing now? After the death of his wife, the writer married for the second time. He lives in the suburban dacha and is still engaged in historical journalism. In December 2015, Yuri Petrovich Vlasov turned 80 years old.

We wish happiness and good health to the great sportsman, writer, man!