Vasily Alexeev (or Alekseyev) was a member of that elite club of people who can honestly be called “One of the greatest weightlifters of all time”. We live in a culture where the overuse of words like “genius” and “classic” and “legend” is ubiquitous. Something is not a classic just because it is five years old.
Alexeev is a legend.
He died yesterday at the age of 69 in Germany.
Alexeev broke over 80 World Records during his career and won two gold medals in 1972 and 1976. So, I ain’t gonna list all of them (see the Wikipedia list). But, one of them that he will certainly be remembered for was being the first ever person to Clean and Jerk over 500 pounds.
Best Ever Lifts
HIs best ever snatch was 190k.
His best ever Clean and Jerk was 256k.
His best ever Clean and Press (they did that still in the early part of his career) was 236.5k!
Below are a bunch of videos of him. There are even more out there, but this is a pretty good sampling.
Documentaries of Alexeev
A documentary showing him in and out of competition:
Documentary from France – Part 1:
France Documentary – Part 2:
If you speak Russian then maybe you can translate the important bits of this 45 minute documentary here for the rest of us:
Alexeev in Competition
The first ever 500 pound clean and jerk:
507 pound clean and press:
At the Olympic Games along with another favorite, David Rigert (There are some serious monsters in this video!):
Clean and Jerks at the 1975 World Weightlifting Championships
The Press
Alexeev Chillin’
On Waterskis:
[...] [...]
[...] Dr. Hartman also has some cool pics, including the famed “Alekseyev doing cleans in the water” photo. There is also a photo set by Bruce Klemens (one of the photos is below). Best Ever Lifts His best ever snatch was 190k. His best ever Clean and Jerk was 256k. His best ever Clean and Press (they did that still in the early part of his career) was 236.5k! From Horton’s website [...]