Viktor Kurentsov Turns 80!
April 5, 2021- Happy 80th Birthday to Viktor Kurentsov, one of all-time best Olympic weightlifters in the history of sports!
Viktor Kuznetsov was a true legend in the middleweight class (75kg). He was a 2x Olympian for the Team USSR (1964, 1968). He won the Olympic gold in Mexico City (1968) and the Olympic silver in Tokyo (1964).
In his fascinating career on the competition platform, Kurentsov won 5 gold medals at the World Championships (1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970), 7 gold medals at the European Championships (1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971), 9 gold nedals at the USSR Championships (1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1974) and set 22 world records.
First middleweight lifter to C&J 400lbs when he made 402 in 1966 at the Worlds. Increased the C&J by 10kg within a four year span, ending with the 413lb, ( 187.5kg), shown above.