Oksen MIRZOYAN

Oksen Mirzoyan from Armenia was the best Soviet bantamweight weightlifter of the 1980s. Having won both the 1983 European and World Championships, Mirzoyan was the favorite for the 1984 bantamweight gold, but missed the Olympics due to the Soviet boycott. After his great 1983 year, Mirzoyan was under the shadow of two great Bulgarian bantamweights Mitko Grablev and Neno Terziyski but, as Terziyski had a doping positive before the 1988 Olympics and Grablev during the 1988 Olympics, Mirzoyan won the 1988 Olympic gold despite being somewhat past his prime. His other medals at major international tournaments were bantamweight World Championships silvers in 1982 and 1985, bantamweight World Championships bronze in 1986 and featherweight bronze in 1987, and bantamweight European Championships silvers in 1982, 1985 and 1986. Mirzoyan was also the Soviet bantamweight champion in 1982-83, 1988 and 1991, taking silver in 1987 and bronze in 1990. Mirzoyan won the Soviet Cup in 1981, 1982 and 1985 and set 14 world records: four in the snatch, snatch in the clean & jerk, and four in the total.

Mirzoyan finished his sporting career after the fall of the Soviet Union and began working as a weightlifting coach and sports official. From 1998-2004 he was president of the Armenian Weightlifting Federation as well as head coach of the Armenian national weightlifting team. In 2004 Mirzoyan became vice-president of the Armenian Olympic Committee and coached his son Arakel (2009 European lightweight champion) and nephew Araik Mirzoyan (2008 and 2009 European Junior lightweight champion) among others.