Valery Kravchuk (USSR, Ukraine)
History in Color:
March 18, 1984, Minsk, Belarus – World and European champion, Valery Kravchuk of Krivoy Rog, Ukraine competes at the 1984 USSR Championship in Minsk. He won the USSR title in the 110kg weightclass with 432.5kg total (190+242.5).
Valery Kravchuk (born in 1955) was one of the strongest Soviet heavyweights in the 1980s.
The 110kg weight class was one of the most difficult among the Soviet athletes to break into to compete on the international level. Kravchuk managed to win the 1982 World and European Championships in Lille where he bypassed his powerful teammate Vyacheslav Klokov.
From 1979 to 1984, Valery Kravchuk consistently won medals at the USSR Championships. He won the USSR national titles in 1981 and 1984.