Trofim Fyodorovich Lomakin (, 2 August 1924 – 13 June 1973) was a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

weightlifter Weightlifting or weight lifting generally refers to physical exercises and sports in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells, barbells or machines. People engage in weightlifting for a variety of different reasons. These can ...

who competed for the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. He won a gold 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 ...

and a silver medal at the

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad () and commonly known as Rome 1960 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 25 August to 11 September 1960 in Rome, Italy. Rome had previously been awar ...

.Trofim Lomakin
sports-reference.com He also won two world titles (1957 and 1958) and set five official and five unofficial world records (1953–1960), two in the press, five in the clean and jerk, and three in the total.TROFIM LOMAKIN
chidlovski.net

Life

Lomakin was born to a miner in a remote village in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

and started training in weightlifting aged 18, while serving in the Soviet Army in the

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

. In 1949 he moved to

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

and in 1952 won his first national and European titles and an Olympic gold medal. Despite his successes in the 1950s, he developed alcoholism and for this reason was excluded from the 1956 Olympic team and later dishonorably discharged from the Soviet Army. After retiring from competitions in 1960 he could not keep any job and got involved with criminals. In the late 1960s he was arrested while trying to smuggle gold out of the Soviet Union and convicted to five years in prison. He was released after three years, but soon after that fell from a 20-meter height and died. He was heavily drunk, and it was unclear whether this was an accident or a murder.

References

External links

* 1924 births 1973 deaths Sportspeople from Altai Krai Russian male weightlifters Soviet male weightlifters Olympic weightlifters for the Soviet Union Weightlifters at the 1952 Summer Olympics Weightlifters at the 1960 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic medalists in weightlifting Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics World Weightlifting Championships medalists 20th-century Russian sportsmen {{Russia-weightlifting-bio-stub