Leonid Zhabotinsky (1938-2016)
Legendary Soviet Olympic weightlifter, the strongest man in the world in the 1960s, Leonid Zhabotinsky died in Zaporozhye, Ukraine on January 14, 2016.
He was 77.
Zhabotinsky set 19 world records and won two gold medals at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo (1964) and in Mexico City (1968), 4 world titles and 2 European titles.
He went well beyond his outstanding list of sports titles and medal counts.
Leonid Zhabotinsky was a legend, a well-known personality, and a brand name around the world.
On behalf of weightlifting community and the Lift Up project, we send our deepest condolences to Mr. Zhabotinsky’s family and friends.
With great tears for his family, Blessed Ukraine, and Olympic Lifiting, I offer my profound condolences in the passing of Her Son, Leonid Zhabotinsky. When I was in Kiev in Oktober, the Universal opinion was Leonid was the Greatest and Strongest in all Ukrainian history. Let us use his eternal legacy to improve our lives in general and to help our sport in particular.
Watch him at 1:48 breaking snatch WR in 1968 European championship. His memory always stays with me. Mr. Chidlovsky: Find the results from 1967 pre-olympics competition and place it on the site. You promised me!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_q2JQl7U3w 1968 European Weightlifting Championships
I’m not going to go through my history of Olympic weightlifting but relate incidents in past.
Zhabotinsky was a naturally big man unlike Alexeev that added weight from under 100kg.
I saw him at 1979 Gettysburg Worlds dressed in a immaculate suit he looked immense.
I meet Alexeev at Montreal pre-Olympic tournament in 1975.
He always seemed to have gruff manner but fans swarmed around him.At this date he was trading lapel pins with fans.One of the fans had a pin that Alexeev was interested so Alexeev gra bed the collar of this fellow pulling this fan right up to his eyes.It was quite amusing.
Another great that was always kind to his fans was the 8th Wonder Bob Bednarski as Bob Hoffman called him.I was shocked when Bob Bednarski died so young.
Hi Ronald,
This is a great recollection of memories of two Soviet supers. Really love it!
Thanks for sharing,
Arthur