Middle-Heavyweight (≤90 kg), Men

Previously competing as a light-heavyweight at the 1976 and 1980 Olympics, Bulgarian Blagoy Blagoev moved up to middle-heavyweight and was World Champion in 1981-83, and held the world record coming into the Los Angeles Olympics. He would have been the clear favorite in LA, but he did not win the Friendship Games, that title going to Soviet Viktor Solodov with a world record of 422.5 kg, while Blagoev finished second.

Without the boycotting nations, the gold medal in Los Angeles went to Romanian Nicu Vlad, who had never before won an international medal, with a total of 392.5 kg. Vlad was known as “The Apollo of the Barbells” for his handsome looks, and he would become one of the world’s top lifters. Vlad won World Championships in sub-heavyweight in 1986 and 1990, and was European Champion in that class in 1985-86. At Seoul in 1988, Vlad won a silver medal in the heavyweight I class, and would eventually win six medals at both the European and World Championships. He later emigrated to Australia, and competed internationally for them but never at the Olympics.