Vasiliy Alekseyev
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Template:MedalTop Template:MedalSport Template:MedalGold Template:MedalGold Template:MedalBottom Image:Bonk&alexeev.jpg Vasiliy Ivanovich Alekseyev (Russian:Василий Иванович Алексеев; born January 7, 1942 in village Pokrovo-Shishkino, Ryazan Oblast) is a former competitor from the Soviet Union, who may be considered the greatest superheavyweight weightlifter of all time.
He began practising weightlifting at age 18. Alekseyev was trained by his coach Rudolf Plyukfelder until 1968, when he began to train alone. For this purpose he invented a special, very hard training system, which was much different from the methods commonly used at that time. In 1970 Alekseyev set his first world record, beginning a series of 80 world records set between 1970 and 1977. He was invincible and held the World Championship and European Championship titles for those eight years. He was the first man to total over 600kg in the triple event. However his performance on the Moscow Olympics of 1980 was a disappointment. In both events he set his opening weight too high and was unable to lift it, scoring zero kilograms as the result. He retired from weightlifting after the Moscow Olympics.
Alekseyev worked as a coach between 1990 and 1992. Under his leadership the Unified Team earned ten medals in weightlifting at the 1992 Summer Olympics, including five golds.
In 1999 in Greece Alekseyev was acknowledged as the best sportsman of the 20th century. He was also awarded Order of Lenin (1972), Order of Friendship of Peoples, Order of the Badge of Honor (1970), Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1972).
Since 1966 he has lived in Shakhty. In 1971 Alekseyev graduated from the branch of the Novocherkassk Polytechnical Institute in Shakhty.