Name Rafael Chimishkyan | Role Olympic athlete | |
Olympic medals Weightlifting at the 1952 Summer Olympics - Men's Featherweight 56-60 kg | ||
1955 USSR Championships.
Rafael Arkadyevich Chimishkyan (Georgian: რაფაელ ჩიმიშკიანი, Russian: Рафаэль Аркадьевич Чимишкян), born March 23, 1929 in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, USSR) is a former weightlifter who competed for the Soviet Union and Olympic, World, European and Soviet Champion. Chimishkyan was awarded the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR title in 1952. He is an honorary citizen of Tbilisi.
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Biography
Rafael was born in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR
He started weightlifting in 1946. In his first Soviet Championship in 1949, he won a gold medal at bantamweight (56 kg). In 1950, Chimishkyan won silver at the World Weightlifting Championships and gold at the European Weightlifting Championships and then switched to featherweight (60 kg). He first won a silver at the Soviet Championships that year in this new category. Chimishkyan became a two-time World Champion (1954 and 1955), six-time European Champion (1950, 1952, 1954–57) and five-time USSR Champion (1949, 1951, 1954, 1955, 1960).
Chimishkyan won an Olympic gold medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. He is the second Soviet weightlifter to become an Olympic Champion. Chimishkyan set 10 world records during his career: three in the snatch, two in the clean and jerk and five in the total.
After finishing his sporting career, Chimishkyan was a Category One international weightlifting referee and was active in the Georgian Weightlifting Federation. He later became the Honorary Vice-President of the Georgian Weightlifting Federation. Chimishkyan was named the Best Weightlifter of Georgia of the Twenty-First Century.