Rafael Chimishkyan

Rafael Chimishkyan
Medal record
Men's Weightlifting
Representing  Soviet Union
Olympic Games
1952 Helsinki -60 kg
World Championships
1950 Paris -56 kg
1953 Stockholm -60 kg
1954 Vienna -60 kg
1955 Munich -60 kg
European Championships
1950 Paris -56 kg
1952 Helsinki -60 kg
1953 Stockholm -60 kg
1954 Vienna -60 kg
1955 Munich -60 kg
1956 Helsinki -60 kg
1957 Katowice -60 kg
USSR Weightlifting Championships
1949 Voronezh -56 kg
1950 Kharkiv -60 kg
1951 Kaunas -60 kg
1952 Ivanovo -60 kg
1953 Tallinn -60 kg
1954 Petrozavodsk -60 kg
1955 Minsk -60 kg
1956 Moscow -60 kg
1957 Lviv -60 kg
1958 Stalino -60 kg
1960 Leningrad -60 kg
1962 Tbilisi -60 kg

Rafael Arkadyevich Chimishkyan (Georgian: რაფაელ ჩიმიშკიანი, Russian: Рафаэль Аркадьевич Чимишкян), born March 23, 1929 in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, USSR) is a former weightlifter who competed for the Soviet Union and Olympic, World, European and Soviet Champion. Chimishkyan was awarded the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR title in 1952. He is an honorary citizen of Tbilisi.

Biography

Rafael was born in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR

He started weightlifting in 1946. In his first Soviet Championship in 1949, he won a gold medal at bantamweight (56 kg). In 1950, Chimishkyan won silver at the World Weightlifting Championships and gold at the European Weightlifting Championships and then switched to featherweight (60 kg). He first won a silver at the Soviet Championships that year in this new category. Chimishkyan became a two-time World Champion (1954 and 1955), six-time European Champion (1950, 1952, 1954–57) and five-time USSR Champion (1949, 1951, 1954, 1955, 1960).

Chimishkyan won an Olympic gold medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. He is the second Soviet weightlifter to become an Olympic Champion.[1] Chimishkyan set 10 world records during his career: three in the snatch, two in the clean and jerk and five in the total.

After finishing his sporting career, Chimishkyan was a Category One international weightlifting referee and was active in the Georgian Weightlifting Federation. He later became the Honorary Vice-President of the Georgian Weightlifting Federation. Chimishkyan was named the Best Weightlifter of Georgia of the Twenty-First Century.

References

  1. "1952 Summer Olympics – Helsinki, Finland – Weightlifting"databaseOlympics.com (Retrieved on February 23, 2008)
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