Valery Popenchenko

Valery Popenchenko took up boxing in 1948. Popenchenko won a gold medal in middleweight at his first Soviet Championship tournament in 1959. In 1960, Popenchenko took bronze at the Soviet Championships, before winning the title five times in a row from 1961-65. Popenchenko won Olympic gold in 1964 and was the European champion in 1963 and 1965. At the 1964 Olympics, Popenchenko was also awarded the Val Barker Trophy, the only Soviet boxer to achieve that. Popenchenko retired from boxing in 1965 with a record of 200 wins in 213 bouts. In 1968, Popenchenko graduated from the Leningrad Military Higher School of the Border Service with a candidate of sciences degree. From 1970 until his death in 1975, Popenchenko worked as a head of physical culture department of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University. In the middle of 1970s the Bauman Moscow State Technical University started the construction of new buildings of the school (including the sporting facilities), and as the head of physical culture department, Popenchenko often visited the construction site to check the work. On 15 February 1975, Popenchenko was visiting the construction site and, when running down the stairs, where handrails were not yet installed, he lost his balance, falling two floors to the bottom of the stairwell.