ALEKSEYEV, VASILY IVANOVICH

born Jan. 7, 1942, Pokrovo-Shishkino, Russia, U.S.S.R. Vasily Alekseyev executing a gold-medal-winning performance in the super-heavyweight weightlifting Soviet super-heavyweight weightlifter who between 1970 and 1978 set 79 world records and won two Olympic gold medals. Alekseyev was the son of a lumberjack; at the age of 12 he was felling trees alongside the men and at the age of 14 was wrestling them on even terms. He enrolled in a forestry institute in 1961 and graduated from Novocherkassk Polytechnical Institute in 1971. He was a member of the Communist Party from 1975 and was awarded the Order of Lenin. He became a mining engineer by profession. Alekseyev began weightlifting competition in 1961, took third place in the 1968 U.S.S.R. meet, and won in 1970. He held this championship through 1976. He was also world champion (197071; 197375; 1977) and European champion (197075; 197778). He broke four world records in 1970, including a three-lift record of 200 kg (total 1,323 lb) that he later raised to 231.78 kg. At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich and the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, he won the gold medal in his division. In the 1978 world championship, he withdrew from competition because of an injury, and at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, he did not qualify for the finals. Thereafter he retired from competition.