Yuri Sedih, a two-time Olympic champion in hammer throwing, has died at the age of 66, the European Athletics Association said on Tuesday.
Sedih, who first fought in the USSR in the form of sports but then acquired Ukrainian citizenship, has broken the world record six times in his 15-year career.
The last of these records, an 86.74-meter throw on 30 August 1986 in Stuttgart, is still unbeaten.
Sedich won Olympic gold in 1976 in Montreal and four years later in Moscow.
He did not take part in the 1984 Games in Los Angeles due to a boycott of the Soviet bloc, but in 1988 he returned to Seoul with a silver medal.
He also won gold at the World Championships in Tokyo in 1991 and was crowned European Champion three times.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Sediha,” carded legend Sergei Bubka, head of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee and, like Sedich, a former Soviet athlete and multiple world record holder, wrote on Twitter.
“For me, Yuri was a friend, a wise counselor, to whom I am deeply grateful that he shared his life experience and human values,” writes the world’s show jumping legend.
Sedih is one of only two throwers together with the Russian Sergei Litvinov, who fired a hammer further than 86 meters.
Sedich was later accused of steroid use by Grigory Rodchenkov, a former director of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, who helped launch Russia’s doping program nationwide from 2011 to 2015.
After a career as an athlete, Sedich moved to France with his second wife, Natalia Lisovska, a former Soviet athlete who has held a world record in shot put more than 35.63 meters for more than 35 years. It has been unbeatable since 1987.
.
