Yuriy Sedykh, a two-time Olympic hammer throw champion whose 1986 world record still stands, has died. He was 66 years old at the time.
Sedykh died after a heart attack early Tuesday, according to the Russian track and field organization.
Sergei Bubka, World Athletics senior vice president and pole vault great, commented on Twitter, “Deeply regret the loss of Yuriy Sedykh.” “Yuriy was a buddy and a knowledgeable mentor to me.”
Sedykh won gold in the 1976 and 1980 Olympics, but due to a Soviet boycott, he was unable to compete in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. In 1988, he won a silver medal in the Seoul Olympics, and in 1991, he won the world title.
At the European Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, Sedykh set a world record of 86.74 meters, which he still holds. All 12 men’s hammer finalists at this year’s Tokyo Olympics were born after Sedykh set the world record.
Sedykh’s massive throw came at a time when track and field was beginning to understand the scope of performance-enhancing drug use.
In a book published this year, former Moscow anti-doping laboratory director Grigory Rodchenkov said that Sedykh was a “major steroid abuser” who benefitted from a Soviet cover-up. One of Sedykh’s samples, according to Rodchenkov, contained such high levels of the steroid stanozolol that it contaminated laboratory equipment.
Sedykh vehemently denied doping. Sedykh said athletes’ large throws in the 1980s were due to better coaching and the Soviet Union’s thorough talent scouting program in a 2015 interview with Russian daily Sport Express.
Sedykh worked as a physical education instructor in France after retiring. He was married to Natalya Lisovskaya, another Soviet world record winner in shot put. At the 2010 Youth Olympics, their daughter Alexia won hammer gold for France.
