Vladimir Vladimirovich Parfenovich (; , ; born 2 December 1958) is a retired

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

ian sprint canoer and politician.

Sport

Parfenovich competed for the Soviet Union at the Moscow Olympics and became the first canoer to win all three events he entered: K-1 500 m, K-2 500 m and K-2 1000 m. He also won twelve medals at the

ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships The ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships are an international event in canoe racing, one of two top-tier Summer Olympic sport events organized by the International Canoe Federation (the other being the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships). They ...

, with nine golds (K-1 500 m: 1979, 1981–1983; K-2 500 m: 1979, 1981, 1982; K-2 1000 m: 1981, 1982) and three silvers (K-1 500 m: 1978, K-2 500 m: 1983, K-2 1000 m: 1983). Parfenovich retired from competitions after learning that the 1984 will be boycotted by 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 then worked as an instructor for the Sport ministry of Belarus and served in the

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

and police forces. In 1995–2007 he headed the Canoe-Kayak Federation of Belarus and was a member of the

Belarus Olympic Committee The National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Belarus (, ) is one of many national Olympic committees that make up the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Created in 1991, the NOC RB (), was charged with selecting athletes to represent Bela ...

. After that he trained canoers in Russia, and in 2013 became head coach of the Russian team.

Politics

In 2000, he entered politics and was elected to the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus. He joined the parliamentary group Respublika that opposed the government of

Alexander Lukashenko Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (also transliterated as Alyaksandr Ryhoravich Lukashenka; born 30 August 1954) is a Belarusian politician who has been the first and only president of Belarus since the office's establishment in 1994, making hi ...

. On 3 June 2004, Parfenovich and two other members of parliament, general Valery Fralou and Siarhiej Skrabiec, started a hunger strike, arguing that the chair of the parliament did not give them the chance for debate and did not put to vote their proposed amendments to the election code. They stopped the strike on 21 June, when parliament voted against their proposals.

References

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Parfenovich, Vladimir 1958 births Living people Soviet male canoeists Belarusian male canoeists Olympic canoeists for the Soviet Union Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic medalists in canoeing Canoeists at the 1980 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships medalists in kayak Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Members of the House of Representatives of Belarus Belarusian sportsperson-politicians Politicians from Minsk Sportspeople from Minsk 20th-century Belarusian sportsmen