Yuriy Sedykh

Yuriy Georgiyevich Sedykh (Ю́рий Гео́ргиевич Седы́х, ) (11 June 1955 – 14 September 2021) was a track and field athlete who represented the Soviet Union from 1976 to 1991 in the hammer throw. He was a European, World and Olympic Champion, and holds the world record with a throw of 86.74 m in 1986.

Career
Sedykh was born in Novocherkassk, Russia, and grew up in Nikopol, Ukraine. He took up track and field in 1967 under coach Vladimir Ivanovich Volovik. He trained at Burevestnik and later at the Armed Forces sports society in Kyiv, attaining the rank of major in the Soviet Army. From 1972 he was coached by Anatoliy Bondarchuk, who is widely regarded as one of the best hammer coaches in the world. In 1973 he became a member of the USSR National Junior Team.

Competition
Sedykh won gold medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics and 1980 Summer Olympics as well as taking first at the 1986 Goodwill Games. He set a world record of 86.74 m at the 1986 European championships in Stuttgart, where he won his third title in a row. He also came first at the 1991 World Championships. Only Sedykh and Sergey Litvinov have thrown over 86 meters in the history of the sport (Ivan Tsikhan's 86.73 m throw in 2005 was annulled by the IAAF in April 2014 due to doping sanctions ).

Sedykh's 1986 world record has been noted for its longevity, and for dating from "a time when track and field was starting to realize the scale of performance-enhancing drug use" (AP). In his 2020 book The Rodchenkov Affair, Russian doping whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov stated that Sedykh was a heavy user of steroids; Sedykh denied allegations of doping.

Coaching
Sedykh coached French hammer throwers, for example Nicolas Figère (80.88 m).

Technique
Unlike many throwers, Sedykh employed three rotations rather than four. He often practised with lighter and heavier hammers. His technique was based on 'pushing' the ball left and letting the hammer turn him.

Personal life
Previously married to Soviet 100 m Olympic champion Lyudmila Kondratyeva, Sedykh subsequently married former Soviet shot-putter and world-record holder Natalya Lisovskaya who won gold in the 1988 Olympics. They had one daughter, Alexia, born in 1993, who came first in the girls' hammer throw at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore. Sedykh and his family moved to Paris, France, where he taught strength and conditioning at higher education level. Sedykh died in France on 14 September 2021 at the age of 66. The urn with the ashes was buried in the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery's Pantheon of Defenders of the Fatherland" in Mytishchi, Russia.