Nikolai SAKSONOV

One of the best featherweight weightlifters of the World at the start of the 1950s, Nikolay Saksonov was the closest rival to the top featherweight weightlifter of the 1950s Rapael Chimishk'iani. Saksonov defeated Chimishk'iani at the 1953 World and European Championships and the 1949, 1952 and 1953 Soviet championships, but lost to him at the 1952 Olympics, the 1952 European Championships and the 1951 and 1954 Soviet championships and had to settle for silver medals at those competitions. Saksonov also set nine world records during his career – seven in the clean and jerk, and two in the total. In 1960 Saksonov earned a Candidate of Medical Sciences degree and worked as a professor with the Moscow University of Physical Culture (now re-named the Russian State University of Physical Culture, Sport and Tourism).