Gennady Chetin

Gennady Chetin, from a remote Ural village, took up weightlifting when he lost his mother at the age of 16 and was sent to a local orphanage. The director of the orphanage was a weightlifting enthusiast who noticed Chetin’s strength compared to his small size and gave him his first weightlifting lessons. Chetin was first noticed by the Soviet sports officials in 1963 when he finished fourth in the flyweight division at the Soviet championships.

In 1964 Chetin won his first medal, a bronze in flyweight at the Soviet championships, and then, after moving up a class, became the top Soviet bantamweight. He was Soviet bantamweight champion in 1968-69, 1971-72 and 1976, while taking silver at the Soviet championships in 1966 and 1967 and bronze in 1973. He also won the Soviet Cup in 1975-76. Internationally Chetin was the 1971 World bantamweight champion, taking bronze in 1972. He also won bronze at the 1972 Olympics and silver at the 1971 European Championships. Chetin set four bantamweight world records: one in the clean & jerk, and three in the total.

After finishing his sporting career in the late 1970s Chetin decided to move to Uzbekistan at the invitation of a friend and worked there as a farmer and ferryman. In the early 1990s however, when Uzbekistan gained its independence from the Soviet Union, Chetin returned to weightlifting. He took up the new form of weightlifting which had gained popularity in the 1980s, powerlifting, and, despite being nearly 50-years-old, won gold at the 1992 European Powerlifting Championships in the lightweight class, taking bronze at the World Powerlifting Championships at the same year. Chetin also worked with the Uzbekistan national weightlifting team, first as a head coach and later as a consultant.