“This wonderful person stands apart in the history of world sports. Clean and decent, without any dope. This is what a real Olympic champion should be - an intellectual, intellectual, athlete with a capital letter and just a citizen of his country ”- such an assessment, the Soviet weightlifter received from the mouth of the USSR People's Artist Yuri Nikulin. Perhaps, you will not say otherwise. The holder of Olympic gold in Rome, the winner of four world championships and six European championships - all this is he, weight lifter Yuri Vlasov, whose biography became an example to follow the future generations of young weightlifters.
From father to son
The future Olympic champion was born in Ukraine, in the city of Makeevka, Donetsk region. December 5, 1935 in the family of the Soviet intelligence and diplomat Pyotr Parfyonovich Vlasov and the hereditary Kuban Cossack Maria Danilovna Vlasova (nee Lymar) Vlasov Yuri Petrovich was born. About the father of the future multiple champion in weightlifting should be told a little more.
After graduating from the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies in 1937, P.P. Vlasov spent his entire future life with the Main Intelligence Directorate. On instructions from the telegraph agency, he was sent as a war correspondent to China, where he worked until 1946. All this in the future will be described in the book “Special Region of China” by weightlifter Yuri Vlasov. The 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 ambassador extraordinary of the Soviet state in the Republic of Burma.
Unfortunately, after the presentation of his credentials, Peter Vlasov could not begin his diplomatic duties. Vlasov Yuri Petrovich all his life proud of his father, a man of surprisingly bright fate, about which he repeatedly wrote in his books on childhood and his path in sports.
Weightlifter Yuri Vlasov: biography of a young athlete
With the outbreak of World War II, Maria Vlasova with two children, Boris and Yuri, was forced to move to the Urals. It was there, in the Russian hinterland, the head of one of the Moscow libraries instilled in her children a love of literature, which subsequently affected the fate of Yuri Petrovich. In his childhood, the boy was fascinated by mysterious adventures and travels of his favorite literary heroes, and he also wanted to become a war correspondent, like his father. It was decided that Yuri enters a military school.
First victories ...
The great Soviet weightlifter Yuri Vlasov set the first records in the walls of the Saratov Suvorov School, which he graduated with honors in 1953. Out of years, the developed musculature of Suvorov Vlasov allowed him to easily win various city competitions. By the age of fifteen, Yuri Petrovich weighed about 90 kilograms, but this was one muscle - not a gram of excess fat. The first category in skiing and skating, the second category - athletics. At the All-Union Championship among cadets of the 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 sports achievements - the championship of the city of Saratov in freestyle wrestling.
The life of Yuri Vlasov more and more resembles sports, nevertheless this does not prevent him from entering the military engineering academy named after N.E. Zhukovsky. Successful study at the academy allows you to get a higher military education, as a result of which, after graduation, Yuri acquires the specialty of radio communications engineer.
... And the first failures
It was within the walls of a military university that Vlasov was first seriously carried away by the barbell. Under the guidance of the mentor of the sports school of CSKA Bagdasarov Suren Petrosovich, cadet Yuri Vlasov in 1957 sets the Soviet Union record (jerk - 144.5 kg, push - 183 kg) and becomes a master of sports. In the same year, a fateful event occurred.
A student of the Surikov Art College Natalya Modorova came to the training hall of CSKA, who needed to make sports sketches. The young people met, and soon got married. The first failure, which entailed the first serious injury, befell an athlete in Lviv. Not holding the record weight at the competitions, weightlifter Yuri Vlasov, whose biography is described in this article, gets a spinal injury. Only the wife’s dedication, the perseverance of the coaches and the will of Vlasov himself helped the future Olympic champion return to the platform. From now on, the whole world will know him.
XVII Olympic Games in Rome
Having seized world leadership since 1959 in heavyweight, Yuri Vlasov for five years was not inferior to any weightlifter in the world.
09/10/1960. On the Olympic platform in Rome comes the Soviet athlete Yuri Vlasov. His main rivals - James Bradford and Olympic champion Melbourne (1956) Paul Anderson - have already completed their mandatory program, and everyone is waiting for the performance of a 25-year-old weightlifter from the USSR. Bench press - 180 kg, snatch - 155 kg, push - 202.5 kg. The amount is 537.5 kg. This is not only the gold of the Olympics, it is a triumph of Soviet sports, it is a new world record!
Champ Brief
- Warsaw World and European Championships, 1959. Bench press - 160 kg, jerk - 147.5 kg, push - 192, 5 kg. Amount - 500 kg. Yuri Vlasov - world and European champion.
- Milan. European Championship, 1960. Bench press - 170 kg, jerk - 145 kg, push - 185 kg. Amount - 500 kg. Yuri Vlasov is already a two-time European champion.
- Vein. World and European Championships, 1961. Total weight in eventing - 525 kg. Yuri Vlasov becomes two-time world champion and three-time European champion.
- Budapest. World and European Championships, 1962. The overall result in eventing is 540 kg. The Soviet weightlifter becomes the third time world champion and takes the fourth gold medal in Europe.
- Stockholm World and European Championships, 1963. With a result in triathlon of 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 standard of the European Championship.
- Moscow. European Championship, 1964. According to the results of three types of exercises, the Soviet athlete sets a new world record and for the sixth time becomes the strongest weightlifter in Europe.
Favorite Tokyo Olympics
The main rival of Yuri Vlasov at the Olympic Games in Tokyo (1964), was Leonid Zhabotinsky. The duel of these two great athletes was watched by the whole world. In the Olympic weightlifting discipline, the Vlasov bench sets a world record, ahead of his teammate by 10 kg. In a snatch, Leonid Zhabotinsky takes 167.5 kg, thereby reducing the gap to 5 kg. Yu. Vlasov weighs 162.5 kg can only be taken on the third attempt. The gold of the Olympic Games was played in a jerk.
In the first approach, L. Jabotinsky fixes 200 kg. Vlasov is capable of weighing 205 kg, and then 210 kg, which are also overcome by Jabotinsky. On the scoreboard - the number 217.5, it is above 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 a third, final approach. If none of the athletes takes this weight, then 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 Olympic champion of 1960, Yuri Vlasov, appears on the platform, who does not manage to take weight. Leonid Zhabotinsky comes to the bar, and now the weight is taken.
The gold medal of the Olympics in Tokyo is taken by a guy from Ukraine, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR Leonid Ivanovich Zhabotinsky, future two-time Olympic champion, four-time world champion and two-time European champion.
Silver is won by Yuri Vlasov. Weightlifters no longer attended training after the Tokyo Olympics. Only two years later, due to financial difficulties, Yuri Vlasov returned to sports and in April 1967 at the Moscow championship he set his last record and said goodbye to sports. In total, during his sports career, Yuri Petrovich set 31 world records. In addition to performing on the international stage, the weightlifter became three times the champion of the USSR and the winner of two sports contests of the peoples of the USSR.
The idol of millions
The duel of two great weightlifters of our time at the Tokyo Olympics was followed by a 17-year-old Austrian guy, the future 38th governor of the state of California, USA, Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger.
It was the victories of Yuri Vlasov in the international arena that inspired the future idol of all the boys of the 70-80s to play sports. Yuri Vlasov and Schwarzenegger met twice: in 1960 in Austria and in 1988
in the Soviet Union.The conquest of literary Olympus
Since 1959, Yuri Vlasov tries himself as a writer. The first person to notice the literary abilities of a weightlifter was Lev Kassil, who recommended that Y. Vlasov seriously engage in writing. Already in 1961, for the best story about sports, he became the laureate of the 2nd prize of the republican competition, organized by the editorial board of the newspaper "Soviet Sport".
In Budapest, at the 1962 World Cup, Vlasov is traveling 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, took place in 1968. It was in this year that the athlete resigned in the rank of captain and seriously plunges into literary activity, thereby becoming a professional writer.
Yuri Vlasov: books
The first book, which collected stories about the sport, was called "Overcome Myself." This storybook was released on the eve of the Tokyo Olympics. Further, in 1972, it turns out his story “White Moment”, and after 4 years - the novel “Salty Joys”. Between the publication of these literary works, in 1973, the novel The Special Region of China was published, where the author, under the pseudonym Yuri Vladimirov, talks about the life and work of his father.
In 1984, in the book Justice of Strength, the author reflects on the difficult life of champions, the history of weightlifting and his contribution to this sport. The three-volume “The Fiery Cross” becomes a monumental work of the writer. This book, according to Y. Vlasov, is a historical confession about the 1917 revolution. Many literary works of the writer were not published.
Due to a spinal injury, Yuri Petrovich was treated for a long time. He underwent several operations, and there were times when the athlete was on the verge of life and death. The wife and children of Yuri Vlasov were always there, helping to overcome all difficulties.
Further social and political activities
- From 1985 to 1987, Yuri Petrovich headed the Weightlifting Federation of the Soviet Union.
- From 1987 to 1988, he was president of the newly created Federation of Athletic Gymnastics (Bodybuilding) of the country.
- From 1989 to 1991, Yu. P. Vlasov was the people's deputy in the USSR Parliament.
- 1992 year. The writer sharply criticizes the government’s reform course in the Kuranty newspaper, urging all the country's leaders to resign.
- From 1993 to 1995, Yuri Petrovich represented the deputy corps in the State Duma of Russia, running for the post of head of this department in 1994.
- In 1996, after an unsuccessful presidential campaign in which Yu. P. Vlasov put forward his candidacy for the post of head of state, he withdrew from political and public activities. As a result of the vote, candidate for president of Russia Yuri Vlasov gained 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 one hundred eighty-five kg, while the personal weight of the athlete is one hundred and ten kilograms.
- Training four times a week, a Soviet sports veteran is in great shape.
- The former athlete still leads the 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 eternal in this life. I have so many interesting literary ideas that if they are all put into practice, it will take about sixty years. ”
Veterans do not age with soul
What is Yuri Vlasov doing now? After the death of his wife, the writer married a second time. He lives in a summer house near Moscow 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 athlete, writer, man!