Iron Arnie's idol: Russian strongman Leonid Zhabotinsky

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The boys who grew up watching films with Arnold Schwarzenegger are countless. Today we will talk about a heavyweight athlete who, not on the screen, but in life, set world records. Leonid Zhabotinsky became the legend of Soviet sports and the idol of the iron Arnie.

Leonid Zhabotinsky is a classic Russian hero. His parameters - height 193 cm and weight 180 kg - confirm this. It is interesting that the strong man had to work hard to get into such a form: the boy's childhood passed during the war years. There was no talk of good nutrition, therefore, having seriously taken up sports, he had to sign up for several sections at once, because at the training camp the athletes were well fed.

The path to big sports was not easy: after finishing 7th grade, Leonid realized that it was time to work, and changed his school bench for a place in the workshop of a tractor plant in Kharkov. However, he did not give up sports, regularly attended the weightlifting section, and at the age of 19 he made his debut in serious competitions - the championship of Ukraine. The performance was successful, Leonid received bronze. It became clear what his real recognition was. In subsequent years, Zhabotinsky became a master of sports and performed at the all-Union training camp, where he took silver. This performance was an excellent application for success: Jabotinsky trained hard to get into the national team and go to the Tokyo Olympics. After the record set with a weight of 165 kg in the snatch, the young but promising athlete was already sure: he had a ticket to Japan in his pocket.

The first number in Tokyo from the Soviet team went to the legendary Yuri Vlasov, Zhabotinsky had to work hard to achieve victory. The Vlasov-Zhabotinsky duel became almost the main intrigue of the Olympics. During the second approach to performing the third (final) exercise, Leonid pretended that he could not lift the declared weight - 217.5 kg. Yuri Vlasov succumbed to a psychological trick, and also did not make every effort. On the third attempt, Zhabotinsky gathered his will into a fist and nevertheless lifted the required weight. So he got Olympic gold.

The then very young Arnold Schwarzenegger followed Jabotinsky's performance in Tokyo. The guy looked at the Russian hero with enthusiasm, which he later confessed to him at a personal meeting. At the invitation of Arnie, Leonid Zhabotinsky visited the United States when he had already finished his sports career.

Zhabotinsky never concealed that victories were not easy, for each success he had to sweat hard in the gym. On his account there are many high-profile victories (among them - two Olympic ones) and a large number of world records. After retiring from the big sport, Zhabotinsky was engaged in teaching activities and taught. He passed away on January 14, 2016, having spent his last years in the Ukrainian city of Zaporozhye.

At the beginning of the 20th century, another athlete shone on the sports Olympus - strongman and philosopher Georg Gackenschmidt, he gained fame due to the fact that he was invincible in the ring and had an outstanding literary talent.