David Rigert, the Soviet weightlifter who won Olympic gold in 1976 and set dozens of world records, died on Monday, October 26, 2026, at the age of 79. The Russian Weightlifting Federation said he died after a long illness. TASS reported that he had recently suffered kidney problems, spent three days in intensive care, and died while being transferred from Taganrog to a hospital in Rostov-on-Don.
“His legacy is not only records and medals, but also his pupils, his coaching school, and an example of resilience and devotion to his cause,” the federation said.
A record-breaking career
Rigert was born on March 12, 1947, in the village of Nagornoye in the Kokchetav region of Soviet Kazakhstan, into a family of Russian Germans; his father had been sent to the Urals as a forced labourer during the Second World War. He first boxed, then turned to weightlifting, inspired by Yury Vlasov’s 1960 Olympic win, and took the sport seriously during his army service. In 1969 the coach Rudolf Plyukfelder invited him to Shakhty, in the Rostov region, where Rigert also worked as a coal miner.
Within a year he was on the Soviet national team and won bronze at the 1970 world championships. He set his first world record that November and went on to set 63 world records and 64 Soviet records, a total few lifters have matched. After a disappointing 1972 Munich Olympics, he won every world and European title from 1973 to 1976.
At the 1976 Montreal Olympics he won gold in the 90 kg class, finishing 20 kg ahead of the runner-up. He became six-time world champion, nine-time European champion and five-time Soviet champion. His final Olympics, in Moscow in 1980, ended without a successful lift after he cut weight to drop a class and injured a leg.
Coach and public figure
After retiring, Rigert was head coach of the Soviet national team from 1985 to 1987 and later of the Russian team. He settled in Taganrog, where in 1999 he founded a weightlifting academy bearing his name, and served on the city council. He was inducted into the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame in 1999, and held the titles Honoured Master of Sport of the USSR and Honoured Coach of Russia.