Leonid Ivanovich Zhabotinsky (Ukrainian: Леонiд Іванович Жаботинський; 28 January 1938 – 14 January 2016) was a Ukrainian weightlifter who set 19 world records in the superheavyweight class, and won gold medals at the 1964 and 1968 Olympic Games.^[2][3]

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Leonid Zhabotinsky

Zhabotinsky in 1968
Personal information
Born	(1938-01-28)28 January 1938 Uspenka, Sumy, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Died	14 January 2016(2016-01-14) (aged 77) Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine
Height	1.94 m (6 ft 4 in)[1]
Weight	163 kg (359 lb) (1968)
Sport
Sport	Weightlifting
Medal record Representing  Soviet Union Olympic Games 1964 Tokyo +90 kg 1968 Mexico City +90 kg World Weightlifting Championships 1963 Stockholm +90 kg 1964 Tokyo +90 kg 1965 Teheran +90 kg 1966 East Berlin +90 kg 1968 Mexico City +90 kg European Weightlifting Championships 1963 Stockholm +90 kg 1966 East Berlin +90 kg 1968 Leningrad +90 kg USSR Weightlifting Championships 1961 Dnipropetrovsk +110 kg 1962 Tbilisi +110 kg 1963 Moscow +102.5 kg 1964 Kiev +102.5 kg 1965 Yerevan +102.5k g 1966 Moscow +102.5 kg 1967 Luhansk +102.5 kg 1965 Rostov-on-Don +110 kg

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Zhabotinsky was born in a village in Uspenka, Sumy Oblast, into a Cossack family.^[4] Although Ivan Filippovich, his father, was an athlete, Zhabotinsky stated in a 1967 interview that he took after one of his grandfathers, and neither of his parents had an outstanding physique.^[3] Zhabotinsky spent his childhood years in Zaporozhye. After graduating from the seven-year secondary school, he worked at the Kharkov Tractor Plant and was coached by Mikhail Svetlichny at the local weightlifting club of the Armed Forces sports society.^[3][4]

Zhabotinsky debuted at the Ukrainian SSR Championship in 1957, where he earned a bronze medal.^[3] Later that year, Zhabotinsky entered the Kharkov Pedagogical Institute and studied there until 1964. He was the flag bearer for the Soviet Union during the opening ceremonies of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, carrying the flag with one hand when the team marched in, when all the other flag bearers used two hands.^[3] Between 1963 and 1974, Zhabotinsky set 19 world records in the superheavyweight class and won gold medals at the 1964 and 1968 Olympics.^[5][3] He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1965 and 1991.^{[citation needed]}

In 1964, Zhabotinsky graduated from the Kharkov Pedagogical Institute and in 1970 defended a PhD in pedagogy. After ending his sport career, he coached weightlifters at the Soviet Army and retired in 1991 as a colonel. In 1987–1991, he worked in Madagascar as a military consultant and weightlifting coach. After that, he became a pro-rector of the Moscow Institute of Business and Law, one of the first private higher education facilities in Russia.^[2]

Zhabotinsky was married to Raisa and had two sons, Ruslan and Vilen, both of whom have competed in weightlifting.^[6] He died at the age of 77 on 14 January 2016 in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.^[3][7]

Zhabotinsky was Arnold Schwarzenegger's teenage idol.^[3]