Yury Pimenov

Throughout the 1980s Yury Pimenov and his twin brother Nikolay dominated in the coxless pairs rowing, winning medals at the Olympics and World Championships. The Pimenov brothers had their first international success when they won silver at the 1979 World Championships. This earned them a place on the Olympic team for their home Games in Moskva in 1980, where they also won silver. One year later the twins won their first gold at the World Championships, followed by another silver in 1983.

In 1984 the Soviet Union held the Friendship Games, dubbed as an alternative to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, which several Eastern Bloc countries boycotted. The Pimenov brothers won gold at the Friendship Games, finishing ahead of the crews from Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria. They followed this with back-to-back golds at the World Championships in 1985 and 1986, with a bronze in 1987 and another silver in 1990. The brothers also competed at the Olympics in Seoul and Barcelona, representing the Unified Team at the latter, with a best result of sixth at the 1988 Games.

Yury later became an international rowing referee and served as the chief referee of the Russian Rowing Federation. His son Nikolaj later competed for Serbia in the double sculls at the 2024 Paris Olympics.