Viktor Mazin

Victor Mazin grew up in Shakhtinsk in a dysfunctional family, and at the age of 16 was imprisoned for theft. Working as an electrician in a mine, weightlifting coach Nikolai Snegurov then took him under his wing and Mazin worked hard and almost immediately began to show good results. His best year was 1980, when he won his only Soviet title (featherweight) and was selected for that year’s Soviet Olympic team. At the Games, Mazin set six of his seven world records, three in snatch, one in clean & jerk, and two in total, as he won Olympic gold, which also doubled as a World Championship gold. Mazin, who set one more featherweight world record in snatch in 1981, won silver at the Soviet championships in 1979 and 1981, and won the Soviet featherweight cups in 1978 and 1982, the latter marking the end of his career. He then moved to the Krasnoyarsk Territory with his brother and sister, and worked in the timber industry. Unfortunately, he again ended up in prison and after his release settled in a distant village in northern Russia. Mazin died of throat cancer in 2022.