Leonid Arkadevich Taranenko (russian: Леонид Аркадьевич Тараненко, born June 13, 1956) is a former

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

/ Belarusian

weightlifter Olympic weightlifting, or Olympic-style weightlifting (officially named Weightlifting), is a sport in which athletes compete in lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead, with each athlete trying to successfully lif ...

and coach. His 266 kg clean and jerk in 1988 was the heaviest lift in competition for 33 years, until

Lasha Talakhadze Lasha Talakhadze ( ka, ლაშა ტალახაძე; born 2 October 1993) is a Georgian weightlifter, holding the all-time world records regardless of weight category in the snatch (225 kg), the clean and jerk (267 kg) and the total (49 ...

exceeded it, lifting 267 at the

2021 World Weightlifting Championships The 2021 World Weightlifting Championships was a weightlifting competition held from 7 to 17 December in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Due to concerns about the rapid spread of Omicron variant and held shortly after Olympics and Chinese National Games, t ...

Weightlifting career

Taranenko trained at VSS Uradzhai in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative stat ...

. His first major success took place at the 1980 Olympics, when, competing for the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, he won the gold medal in the 110 kilogram class with a 422.5 kg total. He was unable to compete in the

1984 Olympics The 1984 Olympics may refer to: *The 1984 Winter Olympics, which were held in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia *The 1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an intern ...

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due to the Soviet boycott, but competed in the 1984

Friendship Games The Friendship Games, or Friendship-84 (russian: Дружба-84, ''Druzhba-84''), was an international multi-sport event held between 2 July and 16 September 1984 in the Soviet Union and eight other socialist states which boycotted the 1984 ...

, where he won the 110 kg class with a world record total of 442.5 kg, exceeding the winning total in

(by

Norberto Oberburger Norberto Oberburger (born 1 December 1960 in Merano ) is a retired Italian heavyweight weightlifter who won a gold medal at Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the O ...

) by 52.5 kg. After this, Taranenko moved up to the super-heavyweight class. Lifting in Canberra, Australia on November 26, 1988, he set a world record of 266 kg in the

clean and jerk The clean and jerk is a composite of two weightlifting movements, most often performed with a barbell: the clean and the jerk. During the ''clean'', the lifter moves the barbell from the floor to a racked position across the deltoids, without re ...

, and 476 kg in the total, having lifted 210 kg in the snatch. While these results are no longer recognized as official world records due to subsequent restructuring of the competitive weight classes (in 1993, 1998 and 2018), as of 2019, his 266kg clean and jerk remained the highest ever achieved in competition till broken December 2021 by Lasha’s 267kg , while his total of 476kg remained the highest ever achieved until broken by

of Georgia at the

2019 World Weightlifting Championships The 2019 World Weightlifting Championships was held in Pattaya, Thailand from 18 to 27 September 2019. On September 12, Egypt was banned from competing at these Championships due to multiple doping offenses. The host nation, Thailand, was also ban ...

while also setting the new clean and jerk record of 264kg for the restructured weight classes. He achieved this by breaking

Hossein Rezazadeh Hossein Rezazadeh ( fa, حسین رضازاده, born 12 May 1978) is an Iranian politician and retired weightlifter. Rezazadeh is a two-time Olympic champion, four-time World Weightlifting champion, and five-time Asian champion. Rezazadeh ha ...

's world record from 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens for 263.5kg. In 1992, Taranenko represented the Unified Team at the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

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. He took the

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, e ...

in the super-heavyweight class with a total of 425 kg. Taranenko's other victories include the 110 kg class titles at the 1980 World and European championships, and super-heavyweight titles at the 1990 World championship and 1988, 1991, and 1996 European championships. Taranenko has served as a coach for female weightlifters in India.

Career bests

* Snatch: 210 kg in the class over 110 kg *

Clean and jerk The clean and jerk is a composite of two weightlifting movements, most often performed with a barbell: the clean and the jerk. During the ''clean'', the lifter moves the barbell from the floor to a racked position across the deltoids, without re ...

: 266 kg (No longer an official

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book '' Guinness World Records'' and other world records organizati ...

due to restructuring of weight classes) * Total: 442.5 kg (200 + 242.5) 1984 in Varna in the class to 110 kg * Total: 476 kg (210 + 266),While Taranenko actually lifted 476 kg, the total was normalized to the standard interval of 2.5 kg under the rules at the time, being recorded as 475 kg in the competition results. in Canberra, Australia on November 26, 1988, in the class over 110 kg. *

Back Squat A squat is a strength exercise in which the trainee lowers their hips from a standing position and then stands back up. During the descent and knee joints flex while the ankle joint dorsiflexes; conversely the hip and knee joints extend and ...

: 380 kg with a two-second pause at rock-bottom *

Front Squat A squat is a strength exercise in which the trainee lowers their hips from a standing position and then stands back up. During the descent and knee joints flex while the ankle joint dorsiflexes; conversely the hip and knee joints extend and ...

: 300 kg for a triple * Olympic Press: 230 kg

Major result

References

External links

Leonid Taranenko
at Lift Up * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Taranenko, Leonid 1956 births Living people People from Malaryta District Soviet male weightlifters Belarusian male weightlifters Olympic weightlifters of the Soviet Union Olympic weightlifters of the Unified Team Olympic weightlifters of Belarus Weightlifters at the 1980 Summer Olympics Weightlifters at the 1992 Summer Olympics Weightlifters at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic silver medalists for the Unified Team Olympic medalists in weightlifting World Weightlifting Championships medalists Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics European Weightlifting Championships medalists Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Sportspeople from Brest Region