I recently came across the story of Armenian born weightlifter Sargis Martirosyan (94kg).
He lifts some impressive numbers (see videos below). So you might ask why haven’t we seen him in London or at the Europeans?
The answer is politics.
As of 2005 he is residing in Austria. First as an asylum seeker, now as a person who currently only has a right to stay.
Since 2009 the Austrian weightlifting federation is trying to get him the desired citizenship. So far in vain.
No Austrian passport means no lifting for Austria in international competitions. Right now his training costs (up to 50000 Euros per year) are financed by private sponsors.
What a waste of talent! All because of some imaginary dividing lines between countries.
Update 18.10.2014: Sargis is on the 2014 World Championships Start List, competing for Austria.
180kg Satch (I read that his PR is 186kg)
Big Squat
180kg Snatch from blocks
221kg BTN Jerk, with a pretty wide grip
190kg Clean x2 + Jerk
Thanks to the submitter.
“What a waste of talent! All because of some imaginary dividing lines between countries.”
Don’t make it political… I don’t think that’s the purpose of this site. Lifters should lift and politics should politics.
I would downvote but I have to “sign in”
Fortunately you don’t get to govern what the point of the site is. Only Gregor does. He highlighted a good lifter and mentioned (VERY briefly) why we have not seen him compete and you go off on one.
The great leader is not pleased with this erroneous behaviour! I best go find my DSP.
i like that silly head cock to the side during the pull.
Ridiculous. In the article they mixed up Clean and Jerk and Snatch by the way…
Know of similar things in Germany. Lifters that could compete on a high level don’t get passports..probably mainly because nobody cares about Weightlifting.
Would someone explain to me why the ear pulling is done? Mostly with Euro lifters
Would also be interested in this. On first sight it looks just like a ritual.
pisses them off a bit…gets them aggressive???? (just a guess)
Is he related to the other Martirosyan weightlifters or is that a common last name lol?
No he is not related to them,but erverybody thinkls that 😉
He was a team mate of me..such a great guy. It is really awesome to lift with such a world class lifter. We are trying to get the austrian-Passport at least for 3-4 years…also the foreign secretary gave his yes to this topic but until now nothing happened. It is a very sad story.
He doesn’t really have a trainer because he is not a member of the austrian weightlifting federation because of not haveing the austrian passport. He has no masseur and no physical therapist, but a lots of doping-tests because he lifts in the Austrian-Bundesliga. In point of that his attainment is unbelievable.
Greetings from Baden (Austria)
I’m guessing the club in the videos is KSV Mödling?
So many things to comment on here:
1. He has a VERY wide stance in his pull.
2. In that first video look at how crooked he pulls the bar
3. His grip seems to be extremely wide in relation to his height/arm length. Look at how close the bar is to his head in the snatch.
He recorded these videos in Tatabanya,Hungary where I used to train 🙂