Valery Yardy

During his brief cycling career Valery Yardy became a World, Olympic, and Soviet national champion. In 1968 Yardy was selected to compete at the Mexico City Olympics after winning his first USSR title that same year. At the Games he rode in the road race and the team time trial, placing 17th and ninth, respectively. Two years later, Yardy, Boris Shukhov, Viktor Sokolov, and Valery Likhachov won gold in the team time trial at the UCI Road World Championships in Leicester, England. Yardy was once again selected to represent the Soviet Union at the Olympics, where he, Shukhov, Likhachov, and Gennady Komnatov won gold in the team time trial. Yardy was only 46-years-old when he died in August 1994. A street in the city of Cheboksary was later named after him.