The Soviet hammer throw legend Yuri Sedych died at the age of 66. His world record still stands today.
The two-time Soviet hammer throw Olympic champion Yuri Sedych died at the age of 66, according to the Russian Athletics Association. In a statement on Tuesday, the association named a heart attack as the cause of death.
The chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine, Sergei Bubka, also expressed his condolences on Twitter. Sedych's longest throw of 86.74 meters at the European Athletics Championships in Stuttgart in 1986 is a world record to this day.
Deeply mourn the loss of Yuriy Sedykh …
An outstanding two-time Olympic Champion, whose fantastic World record in Hammer Throw (86.74) for 35 years is stll not broken. @ Worldolympians @WorldAthletics @iocmedia pic.twitter.com/ZBrqW8MeYV
– Sergey Bubka (@sergey_bubka) September 14, 2021
Gold in Montreal
Born in 1955 in the southern Russian city of Novocherkassk, the athlete won his first Olympic gold in 1976 at the Games in Montreal, Canada. He also won four years later in Moscow. Sedych was also once world champion and three times European champion.
The Soviet athlete lived in what is now Ukraine from childhood. According to the Russian state news agency Tass, he emigrated to France after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.
