Yuriy Sedykh
Yuriy Sedykh was a Soviet and Ukrainian hammer thrower who won Olympic gold in 1976 and 1980 and set the world record in 1986.
1976 Summer Olympics: The Montreal Games, where athletes from more than 90 nations competed in 21 sports. Sedykh won his first Olympic hammer throw gold medal in Montreal.
Hammer throw: A track-and-field event in which athletes rotate a weighted ball on a wire and throw it for distance. Sedykh excelled in this event, using rotational technique to produce exceptional throws.
Nadezhda Olizarenko: A Soviet middle-distance runner who won the 800 metres at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Olizarenko and Sedykh were married and both represented Soviet athletics at the Moscow Games.
World Athletics: The international governing body for track and field, cross-country, road running, and race walking. Its records framework recognizes and preserves the status of Sedykh's 1986 mark.
1980 Summer Olympics: The Moscow Games, which many countries boycotted after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Sedykh defended his Olympic hammer throw title at the home Games.
Hammer throw technique: The sequence of swings, turns, and release used to accelerate and throw the hammer. Sedykh was renowned for a technically efficient approach to building release speed.
Anatoliy Bondarchuk: A Soviet hammer thrower and coach who won Olympic gold in 1972. Bondarchuk coached Sedykh and helped shape his preparation and technique.
Athletics at the 1988 Summer Olympics: The track-and-field competitions held at the Seoul Olympic Games. Sedykh took silver, extending an Olympic medal run across four consecutive Games.
1986 European Athletics Championships: A continental track-and-field championship held in Stuttgart, West Germany. Sedykh won the hammer throw there in the year he set his world record.
Angular momentum: A measure of rotational motion, determined by an object's mass distribution and angular velocity. The athlete-hammer system's rotation helps explain how speed builds before release.