Grigory Irmovich Novak (, 5 March 1919 – 10 July 1980) was a Soviet weightlifter who won a world title in 1946 and a silver medal at the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics (, ), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad (, ) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952, were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1952 in Helsinki, Finland. After Japan declared in ...

. During his career Novak set more than 50 world records, but only 18 became official: 14 in the press and 4 in the snatch.Grigory Novak
. sports-reference.com As a child he worked in building construction alongside his father, and between 1933 and 1938 was an acrobat and juggler at a circus. In 1937, after the family moved to

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, Grigory seriously decided to go in for sports and enrolled in the wrestling section of the Dynamo society. He then started training in wrestling and weightlifting and finished second at the Soviet Weightlifting Championships in 1939. He won the national title in various weight categories in 1940, 1943, 1944–1946, 1948–49 and 1951. After the 1952 Olympics, Novak retired from competitions and returned to the circus, where he worked as a

strongman Strongman is a competitive strength sport which tests athletes' physical strength and endurance through a variety of heavy lifts and events. Strongman competitions are known for their intensity, pushing athletes to their physical and mental limit ...

, weight juggler and

choreographer Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

until his death at the age of 61. He juggled with 30–40 kg weights, and his trademark feats included lifting large platforms on which several people were performing various activities, such as acrobatics, cycling and weightlifting. His two sons, Arkady and Roman, were also strongmen and acrobats, and they performed in the circus alongside his father. Novak died of a heart attack while preparing his part of the 1980 Olympic entertainment program.Григорий Новак — первый советский чемпион мира
olympic-weightlifting.ru

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* 1919 births 1980 deaths People from Chornobyl People from Radomyslsky Uyezd Sportspeople from Kyiv Oblast European Weightlifting Championships medalists International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inductees Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic medalists in weightlifting Olympic weightlifters for the Soviet Union Weightlifters at the 1952 Summer Olympics World Weightlifting Championships medalists Honored Artists of the RSFSR Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR Recipients of the Order of the Badge of Honour Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour {{USSR-weightlifting-bio-stub Russian acrobats Circus strongmen and strongwomen Soviet strength athletes Jewish Ukrainian sportspeople Jewish weightlifters Jugglers People associated with physical culture Soviet Jews Soviet male weightlifters