Yuriy Sedykh

Unlike many hammer throwers Sedykh threw off three rotations rather than four – he felt three rotations were sufficient. Sedykh often practiced with lighter and heavier hammers.

Yuriy subsequently married former Soviet thrower Natalya Lisovskaya. Lisovskaya won the shot put gold in the 1988 Olympics and has the world record of 22,63 m. They have one daughter, Alexia, born in 1993, who won gold in the girls' hammer throw at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore. Sedykh and his family moved to Paris, France, where Yuriy was engaged to teach strength and conditioning at university level.

Yuriy's married his first wife Lyudmila Kondratyeva in the mid-1980s but later divorced. Kondratyeva also won gold at the 1980 Olympics, in the Women's 100 metres. Their daughter, Oksana, born in 1985, is also a high-level Russian hammer thrower.

He 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. He won a first at the 1991 World Championships in Athletics. 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 began athletics in 1967, his first trainer being Vladimir Ivanovich Volovik. He trained at Burevestnik and later at the Armed Forces sports society in Kiev (Sedykh attained 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.

Yuriy Georgiyevich Sedykh (Ukrainian: Юрій Георгійович Сєдих ; Russian: Ю́рий Гео́ргиевич Седы́х ) (born 11 June 1955) is a retired Soviet track and field athlete who represented the Soviet Union, specialising in the hammer throw. He was a World and Olympic Champion and holds the world record with a throw of 86.74 m.