Arkady Vorobyev

Arkady Vorobyev (born October 3, 1924, Mordovo, Tambov oblast, Russia, U.S.S.R.—died December 22, 2012, Moscow, Russia) was a weightlifter who won two Olympic gold medals and was the first Soviet light-heavyweight lifter to win the world championship.

While stationed at Odessa in the Soviet army, Vorobyev worked as a deep-sea diver and began weight training. As a light-heavyweight lifter at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, he attempted to jerk a world record 170 kg (375 pounds). After controversy over whether he would be charged with an official attempt following an initial drop and whether he had successfully lifted the weight on a second attempt, he was ultimately awarded a bronze medal.

Vorobyev achieved his greatest success as a middle heavyweight. At the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne he won his first gold medal, setting a world record in the press and breaking his own world record with a lift of 462.5 kg (1,020 pounds). He broke another of his own world records with a total lift of 472.5 kg (1,042 pounds) at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, earning another gold medal. A 10-time champion of the Soviet Union, he was world champion in 1954–55 and 1957–58.

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Vorobyev, a medical doctor, published A Textbook on Weightlifting (1978) and coached the Soviet team to victories at the 1964 Tokyo and 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. He was inducted into the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame in 1995.