Ibragim Berkmanovich Samadov (''Ибрагим Беркманович Самадов'') born July 18, 1968 in Pervomayskaya, Chechenskaya Respublika,

USSR 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 nationa ...

is a former Olympic weightlifter. In transition at the end of the Soviet Union, he represented the Unified Team at the 1992 Olympics in the 82.5 kg division. Samadov was the gold medalist at the

1991 World Weightlifting Championships The 1991 World Weightlifting Championships were held in Donaueschingen, Germany from September 27 to October 6, 1991. Medal summary Men Women Medal table Ranking by Big (Total result) medals Ranking by all medals: Big (Total result) and S ...

, representing the Soviet Union with his superior clean and jerk evening his total weight with teammate Oleksandr Blyshchyk. In 1992, Altymyrat Orazdurdyýew was the favorite, but was not selected for the Unified Team by coach and Russian national hero Vasily Alekseyev because Orazdurdiyev was from Turkmenistan, while Samadov was from Russia. Thus, Samadov was the new favorite. The Olympic competition was the closest in history, with all three medalists tied with the same weight lifted. The first tiebreaker was the athlete's body weight and Samadov was .05 kg heavier, pushing him to the bronze medal position. The second tie breaker was based on which athlete had lifted their weight first and Samadov would have bested eventual winner, Greek

Pyrros Dimas Pyrros Dimas ( el, Πύρρος Δήμας; ; born 13 October 1971) is a Greek politician and former weightlifter. He is currently the technical director for USA Weightlifting, having taken that position in June 2017. Dimas has also been involve ...

by lifting his snatch on his second lift to Dimas' third. At the medal ceremony, Samadov refused to lean forward to accept his medal, instead taking it in his hand, before he dropped it to the podium and walked away to very loud boos. The

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

(IOC) disqualified Samadov and banned him for the rest of his life. Samadov apologized the following day but the medal was not awarded, either to him or to fourth place finisher Chon Chol-Ho, because the disqualification did not happen during the award ceremony. The IOC also refused to accept his apology, and he was also banned for life by IWF commissioner Gottfried Schoedl. He was ineligible for the Weightlifting Hall of Fame, since making a medal ceremony protest was an offence to the entire Olympic Games.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Samadov, Ibragim 1968 births Living people Russian Muslims Olympic weightlifters of the Unified Team Soviet male weightlifters Weightlifters at the 1992 Summer Olympics Competitors stripped of Summer Olympics medals Chechen sportsmen Sportspeople banned for life Sportspeople convicted of crimes Doping cases in weightlifting European Weightlifting Championships medalists World Weightlifting Championships medalists Weightlifting coaches