Yuri Vlasov

"My Hero" YURI VLASOV
Yuri Vlasov is a former Olympic heavyweight weightlifter for the Soviet Union. He was an Olympic champion of 1960 and a Silver medalist in Olympic Games of 1964 as well as four-time world champion and six-time European champion. He set thirty one world records during his career.

Yuri finished the Saratov Suvorov military school and then graduated from Zhukovsky Air Force Academy in Moscow with a Gold Medal. In Academy he became interested in weightlifting, joined Armed Forces sports society and in 1957 became Master of Sport of the USSR. Between 1959 and 1963 he won all the competitions he participated in, with a huge success at the Rome 1960 Summer Olympics where he broke the world records three times, He was proclaimed the best sportsmen of the 1960 Olympics and the "Strongest Man on the Planet".

After retiring from weightlifting he became a writer and a politician. He is the author of several books: "Overcoming yourself", "Salty Joys", "The Special Region of China" which was about his father, "Flaming Cross"etc. Between 1968 and 1976 he published his works in the Soviet Union. But after his work ''Flaming Cross'' was published in the West, he was considered a dissident and was not published in the Soviet Union.

In 1987, after Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union, Vlasov became Chairman of the Federation of Athletic Gymnastics of the USSR. Besides he worked in the Congress of People's Deputies and in Duma. He was a candidate to President in 1996 but only received 0.20% of the votes. So he retired from politics.

Yuri Vlasov is my hero because he did a lot of for our country as a sportsman. I think he is a noble, honest and modest man. International Weightlifting Federation recognized Y.VIasov the best weightlifter over the world of all time in 1975. I' m sure this fact deserves respect and admiration. I'm proud of that he is my compatriot.