Ibragim Samadov

Ibragim Berkmanovich Samadov (Ибрагим Беркманович Самадов) born July 18, 1968 in Pervomayskaya, Chechenskaya Respublika, USSR is a former Olympic weightlifter. In transition at the end of the Soviet Union, he represented the Unified Team at the 1992 Olympics in the 82.5 kg division.

Samadov was the gold medalist at the 1991 World Weightlifting Championships, representing the Soviet Union with his superior clean and jerk evening his total weight with teammate Aleksandr Blyshchyk. In 1992, Altymurat Orazdurdiyev was the favorite, but was not selected for the Unified Team by coach and Russian national hero Vasily Alekseyev because Orazdurdiyev was from Turkmenistan, while Alekseyev considered the Chechnyan Samadov to be Russian.

The Olympic competition was the closest in history, with all three medalists tied with the same weight lifted. The first tiebreaker was the athlete's body weight and Samadov was .05 kg heavier, pushing him to the bronze medal position. The second tie breaker was based on which athlete had lifted their weight first and Samadov would have bested eventual winner, Albanian born ethnic Greek Pyrros Dimas by lifting his snatch on his second lift to Dimas' third. At the medal ceremony, Samadov refused to lean forward to accept his medal, instead he took it in his hand, dropped it to the podium and walked away. The International Olympic Committee disqualified Samadov and banned him for life. Samadov apologized the following day but the medal was not awarded, to him or to fourth place Chon Chol-Ho because the disqualification did not happen in the competition. The IOC also would not accept his apology. He was also permanently banned by the sport's governing body.