Portraits of Supers by Arkady Vorobyev

To be honest with you, I’ve never seen this book before.

This is a self-published book by Arkady Vorobyev, legendary Soviet weightlifter, coach, teacher and author of various textbooks on Olympic weightlifting.

Unlike most of his publications, this one is different. It looks almost like comics or graphic novel by an amateur author. It contains text by the author with “inside humor” and sometimes rather sarcastic comments by the author on his teammates, Olympic and World champions. In many ways, it is author’s POV on famous athletes. It was written in 1985. Author’s humor sometimes seem a bit dated but it is an interesting take for those who like sports history or know these legendary personalities.

Vorobyev didn’t publish the book under his name. It was signed as written by Athlete Athletoff.

Anyway, here is my translation of the chapters written about the famous superheavyweights of the time.

For historical accuracy, I also provided links to less informal portraits of these athletes at the Lift Up project.

Arkady Vorobyev (1924-2014)

Vasily Alexeev (1942-2011)

Leonid Zhabotinsky (born in 1938)

Yakov Kutsenko (1915-1988)

Yevgeny Novikov (1924-1973)