Yury Dumchev

Yury Dumchev was selected to the Soviet national team after winning gold at the 1977 European Championships. During his career, which lasted until 1988, Dumchev competed at two Olympic Games, finishing fifth in 1980 and fourth in 1988, and at the 1983 World Championships, where he did not advance past qualifying. Having thrown a new world record of 71.68 in May 1983, Dumchev was also considered as a medal contender for the 1984 Olympics, but due to the Soviet boycott. he did not compete at Los Angeles. He instead competed at the Friendship Games, a replacement event held for countries that boycotted the 1984 Olympics, where he won the discus throw with 66.70 metres, which was 10 cm more than Olympic champion Rolf Danneberg threw in the Los Angeles Olympic final.

Domestically Dumchev won two titles (1980-81) and four silver medals (1982-83, 1985, 1988) at the Soviet Championships. During his sporting career Dumchev became interested in acting and from 1980 appeared in more than 50 movies. He was also a stage actor with the Mayakovsky Theatre in Moskva and also worked as a television presenter for various game and children shows. Dumchev joined the Russian Actors Union in 1998 and the Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation in 2002.

Personal Best: DT – 71.86 (1983).