IWF120y/51 – 1964: Leonid Zhabotinsky, a reference of the 1960s
Before the emergence of China in the last decades, lifters from the Soviet Union were systematically at the top of the world weightlifting hierarchy at both the Olympic Games and World Championships. In the 1960s, one name is often cited: Leonid Zhabotinsky. Born in 1938, in what is today the territory of Ukraine, he made his first ‘appearance’ at the 1957 national championships, where he got a bronze medal. He then proceeded with his sportive career alongside his studies at the Kharkiv Pedagogical Institute, successfully qualifying for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. In the Japanese capital, he managed to beat his main rival and teammate Yury Vlasov, who had won in Rome four years earlier and was always better than Zhabotinsky at the previous world and European championships. Lifting 187.5-167.5-217.5-572.5 (the Clean & Jerk lift was a WR at the time), against a Total of 570kg for Vlasov, he gets his first Olympic title in the +90kg category. In Mexico City 1968, Zhabotinsky was the flagbearer of his delegation (he held the flag all the way through only with one hand, when most of the athletes needed the two hands) and revalidated the title with the same Total of 572.5 (200-170-202.5). Between the two Olympic wins, Zhabotinsky had been twice world champion, in 1965 and 1966. He finished his career in 1974, after setting 19 World Records along the way: his personal bests (and global marks by then) were 201.5 in Press, 185.5 in Snatch, 220 in C&J, and 590 in Total (with three lifts). After his retirement, he became a coach in the Soviet Army and deputy rector at the Moscow Institute of Business and Law. In 2004 (photo), he met Arnold Schwarzenegger (actor, politician, and famous bodybuilder), who always confessed that Zhabotinsky had been an idol in his youth. The Soviet/Ukrainian legend died in 2016, at the age of 77.
