Vladimir Belyayev

Ukrainian Vladimir Belyayev was one of the best Soviet middleweight weightlifters of the early 1960s, winning silver in 1962, 1964 and 1965 and bronze at the 1963 Soviet championships, mostly behind Viktor Kurentsov, but he was not selected for the Soviet national team. After switching to light-heavyweight in 1965, where the competition was less strong in the Soviet Union, Belyayev was selected to the national team, although he never won a Soviet title, taking silver in 1969 and bronze at the 1968 Soviet championships.

Internationally, however, he was much more successful, winning the 1968 Olympic silver, World and European light-heavyweight titles in 1966 and World light-heavyweight silver in 1968. Belyayev set nine middleweight world records, five in the snatch and four in the clean & jerk, and four light-heavyweight world records, one in the snatch, one in the clean & jerk and two in the total.