Lavrov was a long time captain for the Russian handball team, and he was Flag Bearer for the Russian athletes at the 2000 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony of the Sydney Summer Olympics. In 2001, Andrey Lavrov was voted "Russian handball player of the century" in his home country.
Lavrov is also the only athlete to have won Olympic gold medals for three different nation"s teams, winning gold for Soviet Union in 1988, the Unified Team in 1992, and for Russia in 2000. Four years later, at the age of 42, he won his fourth olympic medal, another unique feat for a handball player, when his Russian team earned third place and the bronze medals at the 2004 Athens Olympic games. Lavrov has also won two World Championships for Russia, in 1993 and in 1997, as well as the European Championship in 1996.
