Valerios Leonidis ( el, Βαλέριος Λεωνίδης; born February 14, 1966) is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

former Olympic medalist

weightlifter Olympic weightlifting, or Olympic-style weightlifting (officially named Weightlifting), is a sport in which athletes compete in lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead, with each athlete trying to successfully lift ...

and current weightlifting trainer. He has won

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

silver medal at 1996 Atlanta Olympic games in 64 kg division. Also two silver and one bronze

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

medals. He has competed in different

weight class Weight classes are divisions of competition used to match competitors against others of their own size. Weight classes are used in a variety of sports, especially combat sports (such as boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts and wrestling). Altern ...

es from 60 kg to 69 kg. His rivalry with world-record holder

Naim Süleymanoğlu Naim Süleymanoğlu ( bg, Наим Сюлейманоглу; 23 January 1967 – 18 November 2017) was a Bulgarian-born Turkish Olympic weightlifter. He was a seven-time World Weightlifting champion and a three-time Olympic gold medalist ...

in the men's 64 kg was a very popular part of the

1996 Olympic Games The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, in which he won the silver medal. Leonidis was born in

Yessentuki Yessentuki ( rus, Ессентуки́, p=jɪsɪntʊˈkʲiˑ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Stavropol Krai, Russia, located in the shadow of Mount Elbrus at the base of the Caucasus Mountains. The city serves as a railway ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, to a

Pontic Greek Pontic Greek ( pnt, Ποντιακόν λαλίαν, or ; el, Ποντιακή διάλεκτος, ; tr, Rumca) is a variety of Modern Greek indigenous to the Pontus region on the southern shores of the Black Sea, northeastern Anatolia, ...

family. He was a member of the national weightlifting team of the

Soviet Union 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 national ...

from 1982 to 1990 and he moved to

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

in 1991. He was named the 1994

Greek Male Athlete of the Year The PSAT Sports Awards (Greek: Αθλητικά Βραβεία ΠΣΑΤ) are the annual sports awards that are issued by the Panhellenic Sports Press Association (PSAT). The awards are given to the year's top performing individual athletes, in th ...

References

External links

Profile at Sports-reference.com
1966 births Living people People from Yessentuki Soviet male weightlifters Citizens of Greece through descent Greek male weightlifters Weightlifters at the 1992 Summer Olympics Weightlifters at the 1996 Summer Olympics Weightlifters at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in weightlifting Olympic weightlifters for Greece Olympic silver medalists for Greece Weightlifting coaches Pontic Greeks European Weightlifting Championships medalists World Weightlifting Championships medalists {{Greece-weightlifting-bio-stub