Leonid Zhabotinsky, Soviet weightlifter, Died at 77

  Sports

Leonid Ivanovych Zhabotynsky was born on January 28, 1938, and died on January 14, 2016.

He was a Soviet weightlifter.

Leonid set 19 world records in the super heavyweight class.

He won gold medals at the 1964 and 1968 Olympic Games.

He came from an in the village in Uspenka, Sumy Oblast, Ukrainian SSR into a Cossack family.

Leonid spent his childhood years in Zaporizhia.

Following his graduation from the seven-year in secondary school.

He worked at the Kharkiv Tractor Plant and was coached at the local weightlifting club of the Armed Forces sports society.

He debuted at the Ukrainian SSR Championship in 1957, where he earned a bronze medal.

In that same year, he entered the Kharkiv Pedagogical Institute and studied there until 1964.

During the 1961 USSR Championship in Dnipropetrovsk, Leonid earned silver with the result of 500 kg.

Two years later he set his first world record, starting an outstanding series of international achievements.

He was the flag bearer for the Soviet Union during the opening ceremonies of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City and caused a stir by carrying the Soviet flag single-handed when the team marched in.

Between 1963 and 1970, he set 17 world records in the super heavyweight class and won gold medals at the 1964 and 1968 Olympics.

The famous battle between him and Yury Vlasov at the 1964 Summer Olympics was one of the most memorable moments of that Games.

Leonid was a member of CPSU between 1965 and 1991.

He graduated from the Kharkiv Pedagogical Institute and in 1970 defended a P.h.D in pedagogy, in 196.

After ending his sports career, he coached weightlifters at the Soviet Army and retired in 1991 as a Colonel.

He worked in Madagascar as a military consultant and weightlifting coach, in 1987–1991.

After that, Leonid became a pro-rector of the Moscow Institute of Business and Law, one of the first private higher education facilities in Russia.

He was married to Raisa and had two sons, Ruslan and Vilen, both have competed in weightlifting.

Leonid Zhabotinsky passed away at 77 yrs old.