Lipat Varabiev

Despite being a very good sprint canoer Lipat Varabiev had the bad luck of competing at the same time as the great Ivan Patzaichin, who won 12 Olympic and World titles. Active from the early 1970s to the early 1980s Varabiev did manage to win four medals at the World Championships, including a gold, but was often overlooked due to the sheer dominance in the sport from Patzaichin.

Varabiev won his first medal at the World Championships in 1971 in Beograd with bronze in the C1 1,0000 metres. He followed this up with silver in the same event two years later in Tampere, before winning gold in the C1 500 metres and silver in the C2 1,0000 metres at the 1977 Championships in Sofia. After failing to qualify for the Olympics in both 1972 and 1976 due to the talent of Ivan Patzaichin, Varabiev finally made it to the Games in Moskva in 1980. Even though he was nearing the end of his career, he still managed to reach the finals of both the C1 500 metres and the C1 1,000 metres, finishing fifth in the latter.