Rafael Chimishkyan
Soviet weightlifter (1929–2022)
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Rafael Arkadyevich Chimishkyan (Georgian: რაფაელ ჩიმიშკიანი, Russian: Рафаэль Аркадьевич Чимишкян; 23 March 1929 – 25 September 2022)[1][2] was a Georgian 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 was an honorary citizen of Tbilisi.
| 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 |
Biography
Chimishkyan was born in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR on 23 March 1929. 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.[3] He was the last living Olympic Champion as well as even the last living medalist in Weightlifting from the 1952 Olympics. Chimishkyan set 10 world records during his career: three in the snatch, two in the clean and jerk and five in the total.
