Vladimir Shestakov

Vladimir Shestakov took up judo in 1972 and rose to the Soviet national team in 1982. During his career Shestakov won Olympic middleweight silver in 1988, World Championships half-middleweight bronze in 1985 and half-middleweight gold at the 1986 Goodwill Games. Shestakov also won Soviet half-middleweight titles in 1983 and 1992. After finishing his sporting career Shestakov worked as a judo coach and official. From 1996-99 he was vice-president of the Russian Judo Federation and from 1999-2004 was president of the Russian Judo Federation. From 2001-04 Shestakov was head coach of the Russian national judo team. In 2005 Shestakov became coach of the Latvian national judo team. He has also edited the Russian sports magazine Judo.