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

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

. 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 spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

, 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 In the 19th century, the term strongman referred to an exhibitor of strength or similar circus performers who performed feats of strength. More recently, strength athletics, also known as strongman competitions, have grown in popularity. These ...

, weight juggler and

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

till 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 Jewish Ukrainian sportspeople Soviet Jews Soviet male weightlifters Jewish weightlifters Olympic weightlifters of the Soviet Union Weightlifters at the 1952 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic medalists in weightlifting Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics Acrobats Circus strongmen and strongwomen Jugglers People associated with physical culture European Weightlifting Championships medalists World Weightlifting Championships medalists Honored Artists of the RSFSR Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inductees Sportspeople from Kyiv Oblast {{USSR-weightlifting-bio-stub