List of Armenian Olympic medalists
Due to historical and political reasons,[lower-alpha 1] only a small portion of Armenian athletes and athletes of Armenian descent have competed for Armenia in the Olympic Games. Armenian kings Tiridates III and Varazdat were recorded as champions in the Ancient Olympic Games. The first Armenians to participate in modern Olympics were athletes Mkrtich Mkryan and Vahram Papazyan, who represented the Ottoman Empire at the 1912 Stockholm Games.[1] The first Armenian to win a medal was Hal Haig Prieste, a son of Armenian immigrants, who won a bronze medal in diving at the 1920 Antwerp Games for the United States.[2] Soviet Armenian gymnast Hrant Shahinyan became the first Armenian gold medalist of the modern Olympics in 1952.
From 1952 to 1988, most Armenian athletes represented the Soviet Union. Although Armenia became an independent state in 1991, during the 1992 Barcelona Games Armenia and other former Soviet states (except the Baltic states) were part of the Unified Team. The National Olympic Committee of Armenia was founded in 1990 and became an International Olympic Committee member in 1993.[3] Since the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, the Republic of Armenia participates separately, but some Armenian athletes still compete under foreign flags, including ethnic Armenians born abroad and those who emigrated from Armenia.
Ancient Olympic Games
One of the most prominent Armenian kings, Tiridates III, who is best known for adopting Christianity as Armenia's state religion in 301, became a champion in wrestling in the 265th Olympics in 281 at age 22-23.[4] King of Armenia Varazdat (Varasdates) from the Arshakuni dynasty, who reigned between 374 and 378,[5] is the last known champion of the Ancient Olympic Games. He became a champion in fisticuffs at the 291st Olympic Games in 385 A.D., seven years after leaving the Armenian throne.[6][lower-alpha 2]
Modern Olympics
Summer Olympics
By games
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By sport
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By country
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Disqualified athletes
- Ashot Danielyan of Armenia was stripped of his medal and suspended following a positive drug test after winning a bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Games in Men's +105 kg Weightlifting.[99]
- Ara Abrahamian of Sweden was disqualified after winning a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Games in Men's Greco-Roman 84 kg Wrestling due to "violating the spirit of fair play."[100]
Armenian coaches of non-Armenian Olympic medalists
- Adam Krikorian the head coach of the USA water polo women's team. At the 2016 Rio Games the USA water polo women's team wins gold medal.[1]
Winter Olympics
Medal | Name | Country | Games | Sport | Event | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gold | Grigory Mkrtychan | Soviet Union | 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo | Ice hockey | Men's tournament | |
Gold | Vicki Movsessian | United States | 1998 Nagano | Ice hockey | Women's tournament | |
By games
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By sport
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By country
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See also
References
- Notes
- At the time of the first modern Olympics in 1896, the Armenian homeland (i.e. the Armenian Highlands that has historically been called simply "Armenia" and held the overwhelming majority of the world's Armenian population until the Armenian Genocide of 1915), was divided between the Ottoman and Russian Empires. In 1918, the First Republic of Armenia was established in the parts of the Armenian homeland where Armenians still lived. It existed only two years and was annexed by the Red Army in late 1920. The Armenian SSR became part of the Soviet Union by the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR in December 1922. Armenia became independent following the 1991 independence referendum during the last months of the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
- 385 is the most widely accepted date,[7][8][9][10][11] supported by a memorial plate at the museum in Olympia, Greece.[12] Other authors have indicated 369,[13][14][15][16] 365,[17] and 393[18] as the date of his victory. Some authors have erroneously stated that Varazdat was an Olympic champion in wrestling or pentathlon.[19]
- Citations
- "Armenian Sport Life in the pre-WWI Ottoman Empire". Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
- "One More Olympic Moment Camden's Hal Prieste, 103, The Oldest Living Olympian, Will Go To Sydney To Return A Flag He Captured In 1920". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 9 September 2000. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
- "Armenia". Official website of the Olympic Movement. Archived from the original on August 31, 2012. Retrieved August 25, 2012.
- Ispirian 2000, p. 191.
- According to Faustus of Byzantium; see Hacikyan, Agop Jack; Basmajian, Gabriel; Franchuk, Edward S.; Ouzounian, Nourhan (2000). The Heritage of Armenian Literature: From the Oral Tradition to the Golden Age. 1. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. p. 184. ISBN 9780814328156.
- Ispirian 2000, p. 194.
- Gardiner, E. Norman (2002). Athletics in the ancient world. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 9780486424866.
The last Olympic victor whose name we know is the Armenian Prince Varazdates, who won the boxing in the 291st Olympiad (A. D. 385).
- Mandell, Richard D. (1987). The Nazi Olympics. Champaign: University of Illinois Press. p. 6. ISBN 9780252013256.
Under the tolerant, assimilating Romans, the Olympics became polyglot and the last Olympic victor of whom we have record was an Armenian prince, Varaztad, who won a boxing match in A.D. 385.
- Trypanis, Constantine Athanasius (1964). Grooves in the wind. Chilmark Press. p. 7.
By a strange irony of fate the last recorded victor of the national (Olympic) games was Varazdates, a Ascarid from Armenia, who won the boxing in a.d. 385.
- Baker, William Joseph (1988). Sports in the Western world (Rev. ed.). Urbana: University of Illinois Press. p. 40. ISBN 9780252060427.
Fittingly, the last champion for whom there is evidence was not a Greek, but an Armenian boxer named Varaztad.
- Lambros, Sp. P.; Polites, N. G. (1896). The Olympic Games, B.C.776-A.D.1896: Part First. New York: American Olympic Committee. p. 8.
This explains how in the two hundred and ninety first Olympiad (385 B.C.) the victory was carried off by the Armenian pugilist, Varasdates, a descendant of the royal family of Arsacides, who became later the king of Armenia. This Varasdates was the last conqueror in the Olympic Games known to us.
- Ispirian 2000, pp. 193-194: "Հարցի ճշգրտման վրա լույս է սփռում Հունաստանի Օլիմպիա ավանի օլիմպիական թանգարանում ցուցադրվող դարերի խոքից մեզ հասած հուշագիրը, ուր աղյուսաձև վերից վար նշված են օլիմպիական խաղերի թվերը, դրանց անցկացման տարեթվերը, օլիմպիական խաղերի չեմպիոնների անունները և նրանց երկրների անվանումները: Այդ հուշագիրը տեղեկացնում է որ հին հունական օլիմպիոնոկոսի կոչումը նվաճել է հայաստանցի Վարազդատը:"
- Scanlon, Thomas F. (2002). Eros and Greek Athletics. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 357. ISBN 9780195348767.
Varazdates, a Arsacid from Armenia who won in boxing in A.D. 369.
- Guttmann, Allen (2004). Sports: The First Five Millennia. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. p. 22. ISBN 9781558496101.
The date of the last Olympic is as uncertain as the date of the first. Until quite recently, the last known victor was the Armenian prince Varazdat, who won the boxing competition in 369 A.D., but an inscription discovered at Olympia in 1994 gives the names of several athletes whose victories came as late as 385 A.D. If Theodosius I decreed an end to the Olympics in 394, as some scholars believe, then the last games took place in 393. (The evidence for this belief comes from an eleventh-century manuscript by Georgios Kedrenos.)
- Wenn, Stephen R.; Schaus, Gerald P., eds. (2007). Onward to the Olympics : historical perspectives on the Olympic Games. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-88920-505-5.
Not only does the honour of being the last known Olympian no longer belong to Varazdat(es) of Armenia in AD 369, but it is significant for our understanding of the "end" of the Games that these latest Olympians came from Athens, not from distant parts if the ancient world.
- Littlewood, A.R. (2010). "Olympia". In Wilson, Nigel (ed.). Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece. New York: Routledge. p. 515. ISBN 978-0-415-87396-3.
Although the Roman conquest initially involved a vast diminution in the games' prestige, they now become open to at least some non-Greeks (the last known victor, of boxing in AD 369, was Varazdates, the crown prince of Armenia).
- Perrottet, Tony (2004). The Naked Olympics: The True Story of the Ancient Games. New York: Random House. p. 190. ISBN 978-0-8129-6991-7.
A.D. 365 - The last Olympic victor on record is the Armenian prince Varazdate, who won the boxing in the 291st Olympiad. A.D. 393 - Last official Olympic Games (the 293rd). The victors' names are lost.
- Katvalian, Maksim (1985). "Վարազդան [Varazdat]". In Hambardzumyan, Viktor (ed.). Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia (in Armenian). Yerevan: Armenian Encyclopedia. pp. 305–306.
Վարազդատը աղբյուրներում հայտնի է որպես բազմակողմանի զարգացած մարզիկ (ըստ Մովսես Խորենացու՝ կորովի նետաձիգ, ճարտար գազանամարտիկ, սուսերամարտիկ, ըմբշամարտիկ, բռնցքամարտիկ): Նրա անունը դրոշմվել է մարմարյա սալիկին՝ որպես վերջին օլիմպիադայի (393) չեմպիոնի:
- Ispirian 2000, p. 193.
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His father, an Armenian-born discus thrower, and his mother, a Ukrainian volleyball player, had met at the Kiev State Institute of Physical Education, and both taught there while he was growing up.
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Мама у меня русская, папа действительно армянин, я даже в прошлом году участвовала в Ереване в Панармянских играх, мне факел на торжественном открытии доверили.
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Отец мой действительно армянин, из Ленинакана.
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