Vasily Alexeev has died RIP the pride of Soviet wweightlifting

[Hallowed666]

Vasily Alexeev has died. from the IWF web site:

Vasily Alexeev, double Olympic champion in Munich 1972 and in Montreal 1976, eight times World Champion, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR, and Honored Coach of the USSR died today.

Vasily set 80 world records and 81 records of the USSR, including eternal world record Total in three lifts (645kg).

Alexeev was a Member of the Weightlifting Hall of Fame 1993 and voted as the all-time best sportsman of his country. Probably he was the best known weightlifter of all times in the world. 7 January 2012 he would have turned 70 years old. At home in the city of Rostov region a great celebration was prepared, however since early November he was hospitalized in Badenhausen, Germany at a cardio clinic where he died today.

The IWF offers its deep condolences to his family and the Russian Weightlifting Federation.

Source: Russian Weightlifting Federation



Vasily Alexeev, a man who was considered to be, hands down, the greatest super-heavyweight of all time, until that gigantic Iranian weightlifting machine Hossein Rezazadeh stepped onto the scene.

Alexeev was the Russian Mas Oyama of weightlifting, a general lunatic, and an innovator in training methodologies the likes of which we'll likely never see again.

Alexeev's is considered the greatest, or one of the few greatest, super heavyweight weightlifters of all time, due primarily to the fact that he set 80 world records and 81 Soviet records in weightlifting during his career. Alexeev was considered a national hero in the Soviet Union during his career, and was even beloved by the neo-Stalinist Premier Leonid Breznev, who pretty much hated everybody. "Brezhnev loved Alexeev, considered him a symbol of Russian strength or, as it was said often, "the stongest man on the planet" (Iriston) Alexeev stood 6'1" and weighed around 350 lbs, and was a bonafide badass on the platform. His best lifts included:

Snatch: 418 lb (190.0 kg)

Clean and press: 520.3 lb (236.5 kg)

Clean and jerk: 563.2 lb (256.0 kg)

Total: 1419 lb (645.0 kg) (clean and press + snatch + clean and jerk)

Total: 979 lb (445.0 kg) (snatch + clean and jerk)

One Arm Snatch: 231 lbs. (105 kg) (Left Hand)



While your mind is reeling from those insanely gigantic numbers, consider this: he had no set training routine. At a time when everyone in Russia was forced to **** on a timer, and they were sent to the camps if their deuce was over or under the established Soviet limits for ass loafs, this guy was left way the **** alone, and he got up to some crazy nonsense in the gym. "Vasily includes a great variety of exercises in his training", wrote Ivanov. "Besides exercises in the· snatch, jerk, or press, pull and squats, I have used many other exercises with the barbell and weights. Bends with the barbell on the



shoulders; bends with the barbell on the shoulders while lying on the 'horse' bracing one's hips with the legs secured [back extensions - ed.]; jumps with the barbell on your shoulders; press on crossbars with weights; bending and unbending the arms in the elbow joints; squats on one leg; throwing the bar upward and behind; and other exercises. In addition, in the first year of the time span analyzed, these exercises consisted of, on the average, 360 lifts in the preparatory period and 158 lifts during the competition period. In the second year, correspondingly 841 and 506 lifts, and in the third 880 lifts a month."" (Ivanov) Thus, his training variation was leaps and bounds beyond that of the Russians or the Bulgarians, both of whom restrict their training to the basics.



Alexeev didn't stop with simple doing the occasional bench press or jump squat in the gym, either. He'd drag a ****load of kettlebells and loaded barbells down to a river, toss the **** in the water, and lift in the middle of the river. He apparently believed that getting what amounted to a violent colonic with near-freezing water in the Volga was a bracing start to a snatch attempt. Due to a combination of factors, which were likely that everyone knew he was bat**** crazy, and the fact that Soviet guards likely would have shot anyone who stepped off the platform to attempt Alexeev's wacky routines, he trained alone. As he was left to like an ultra- old school Clubber Lang, Alexeev massively increased his training load, which according to Ivanov was regularly 40 tons per session. "The difference between my methodics and others is great," said Alexeev. "What is mainly different is that I train more often and I lift more weights than others. I never know when I will train. Sometimes deep in the night, sometimes in the morning. Sometimes several times a day, sometimes not at all. I never repeat myself. Only I understand what is right for me. I have never had a coach. I know my own possibilities bestly. No coach knows them. Coaches grow old and they have old ideas."" (Ivanov)



Though he looked like a massive wad of uncooked cookie dough, Alexeev was a bad mother****er both in and out of the gym. I can find little more on his diet than he allegedly ate 36 egg omlettes for breakfast, which he must've followed by loading a caulking gun with mayonnaise and injecting it directly into his femoral artery, because he was a fat mother****er. We do know that the man liked to drink, and that he thought about as much about the traditional sports discipline of sleeping and refraining from getting hammered as he did about Russian training methodologies- they were a pile of horse****. "When they were in the training hall sizing each other up Vasily was always gone only to return after hours. The other competitors slept in their beds like giant babes while "Uncle Vasily" ran up and down the halls drinking beer from the case held under his arm while thowing bottles and firecrackers in the other sleeping giant's rooms. " (Sorin) Ex-****ing-actly. It's not as though a 600 lb snatch is going to cure cancer, and Alexeev knew it- he was out to lift big weights, live big, and have a good ****ing time. That said, he was apparently not above handing out an ass-whipping when one was warranted. Rudolf Plyukfelder, an East German who briefly coached Alexeev, said that Alexeev "already served time in jail for ruthless beating of a man. But they pulled him out from jail because he was a "pride of Soviet sport." (Malkin) You know you're a weightlifting badass when the cops let you out of jail so you can represent yo' ****.

SOURCE. Chaos & Pain Baddest Motherfukkers

[Mr Marcus]

Sorry to be tardy to the party by bumping this here thread, but i only just heard about this now.

Sad to hear he has gone - a true great amongst Greats. From being trained to training greats himself (he trained the great Leonid Taranenko during his 1988 and 1992 Olympic outings). From the highs of Munich 72, Montreal 76, to his huge flop in front of his own fans in Moscow 1980.

RIP Vasili Ivanovich.

[JiP]

That was a great read.