Leonid Ivanovych Zhabotynsky was a Soviet weightlifter who set 19 world records in the superheavyweight class, and won gold medals at the 1964 and 1968 Olympic Games.
Background
Zhabotinsky was born in a village in Uspenka, Sumy Oblast, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic into a Cossack family. Although Ivan Philipovich, his father, was an athlete, Zhabotinsky stated in a 1967 interview that he took after one of his grandfathers, and neither of his parents had an outstanding physique.
Education
High School Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University.
Career
Zhabotynsky spent his childhood years in Zaporizhia. After graduating from the seven-year secondary school, he worked at the Kharkiv Tractor Plant and was coached by Mikhail Svetlichny at the local weightlifting club of the Armed Forces sports society. Zhabotynsky debuted at the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Championship in 1957, where he earned a bronze medal.
Later that year, Zhabotynsky entered the Kharkiv Pedagogical Institute and studied there until 1964.
Zhabotynsky was the flag bearer for the Soviet Union during the opening ceremonies of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, carrying the Soviet flag single-handed when the team marched in, when all the other flag bearers used two hands.
Membership
He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1965 and 1991.