Vladimir Golovanov

Vladimir Golovanov from Siberia took up weightlifting in 1957 while serving with the Soviet Army in the Russian Far East. Golovanov’s best year was 1964, when he won the Soviet middle-heavyweight title and was selected to the Soviet national team, after which he won the Olympic, World, and European titles. After his great 1964 season, Golovanov won only a silver at the 1965 World Championships, but was then injured and did not compete for nearly three years. In 1968, when returning after the injury, Golovanov switched to the heavyweight class and won the Soviet title as a heavyweight in 1969 and bronze at the 1972 Soviet championships, after which he retired from competition. During his career Golovanov set eight middleweight world records, five in the press and three in the total, and two heavyweight world records, one in the clean & jerk and one in total. Golovanov later worked as a weightlifting coach in his hometown of Khabarovsk. From 1985 Golovanov worked as the president of the regional (Russian Far East) weightlifting federation and, from 1998 until his death, worked as a director of a sport school in Khabarovsk.