David Rigert

David Rigert was one of the greatest weightlifters ever but, at the highest level of the sport, the Olympic Games, he suffered abject failure twice. Rigert was born in a remote Kazakhstan village to a German family and took up weightlifting in 1966. Rigert rose to prominence in 1969 when he met a fellow Soviet weightlifter and renowned weightlifting coach of German origin Rudolf Plyukfelder, who invited Rigert to train under him in Shakhty, Rostov. Soon Rigert rose to be one of the greatest weightlifters of the 1970s. At his first international tournament, the 1970 World Championships, Rigert won bronze in light-heavyweight. The next year Rigert moved to middle-heavyweight and was world middle-heavyweight champion five times, in 1971 and 1973-76. Rigert later won the World title as a sub-heavyweight in 1978. Rigert won the European middle-heavyweight title seven times (1971-76, 1978) and added two more European titles in sub-heavyweight class in 1979-80. In 1972, 1976 and 1980 he was the clear favorite in his class at the Olympic Games and in 1976 he came through as expected and won the gold medal. But in both 1972 and 1980 he failed to lift a weight in three snatch attempts and was eliminated from the competition.

Domestically Rigert won the Soviet middle-heavyweight title five times (1972-73, 1975-76, 1978), while taking the middle-heavyweight silver in 1971 and light-heavyweight silver in 1970. Rigert also won five Soviet CupsL one in light-heavyweight (1972), three in middle-heavyweight (1971, 1973, 1975) and one in sub-heavyweight (1979). Rigert set 68 world records during his career, four of them in light-heavyweight (two in snatch, one in clean & jerk and one in total), 50 in middle-heavyweight (one in press, 14 in snatch, 17 in clean & jerk and 18 in total), 13 in sub-heavyweight (5 in snatch, 4 in clean & jerk and 4 in total) and one in heavyweight snatch.

After finishing his sporting career in 1981 Rigert became a weightlifting coach, first in Rostov and later in Taganrog. From 1985-87 Rigert was head coach of the Soviet national weightlifting team. In 2002 Rigert became head coach of the Russian national weightlifting team, serving as head coach at the 2004 Olympics. He has also manufactured weights for weightlifting competitions. In 2004 Rigert entered local politics and was elected to the Taganrog city council. He was re-elected in 2009, representing the United Russia political party. In 1999 he was elected to the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame.