Middleweight (≤75 kilograms), Men

At the start of 1972 Vyacheslav Lemeshev was not guaranteed a place on the Soviet Olympic team. Although he was European junior champion in 1971, the USSR also had Juozas Juocevicius, the European senior champion, and the highly rated Rufat Riskiyev to choose from. When Juocevicius’ Olympic dreams were thwarted by injury it was thought that Riskiyev would be chosen but instead the Soviet selectors chose Lemeshev. The choice of Lemeshev turned out to be a masterstroke and he proved unbeatable. Only one of the contests reached the final round and he secured gold with a brutal knockout of Reima Virtanen. The Finn was unconscious for a nearly a minute after the contest. Lemeshev was European champion in 1973 and 1975 but retired at the young age of 24 after failing to be selected for the 1976 Olympic Games. In his later life he battled unsuccessfully with alcohol problems and this contributed to his death at the age of just 43.