The world’s greatest collection of sporting events is now in the history books. Athletes came together for the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics on August 11. In my previous breakdown of Armenians at the Olympics, we left off with Artur Davtyan winning Armenia’s first medal in Paris. Davtyan scored a 14.966 in vault for a silver medal on August 4. This article will wrap up Armenia’s involvement in the second half of the Paris Olympics.
After Davtyan’s success on the world stage, another Armenian athlete set a national record.
Yervand Mkrtchyan was Armenia’s sole representative in the men’s 800m track event, finishing with a time of 1:49.91. Mkrtchyan finished last among nine competitors in heat 3 on August 7, ranking 51st out of all runners. This finish set a new record for the fastest 800m run by an Armenian. The six-time national champion qualified for the 800m repechage the following day, August 8. Mkrtchyan competed in the second heat, finishing eighth out of nine competitors with a 1:50:07 time.
On Wednesday, August 7, a lot was at stake for Armenian wrestlers.
Three-time European champion and world champion Malkhas Amoyan had a shot at medaling in his first Olympics in the men’s Greco-Roman 77 kg. Amoyan took on Uzbekistani-Armenian Aram Vardanyan for a bronze medal after losing to eventual gold medalist Nao Kusaka of Japan in the semifinals 1-3. In the end, Amoyan walked away with a bronze medal around his neck, winning 6-5 in a nail-biter. Following the bout, Amoyan and Vardanyan embraced one another as the Armenian crowd cheered and clapped.
Later in the day, another Armenian wrestler battled for the ultimate prize — a gold medal. Artur Aleksanyan and Mohammad Hadi Saravi of Iran dueled in the men’s Greco-Roman 97 kg final. Armenia was assured of its third medal, but it was clear what the four-time world champion had his eyes on.
The final wouldn’t go Aleksanyan’s way. Saravi came up with a 4-1 win over Aleksanyan, and “The White Bear” was visibly frustrated. It didn’t take long for Aleksanyan to remove his silver medal at the podium and leave before any of the other medalists. Later, it was revealed that the Wrestling Federation of Armenia appealed the result, because they believed the Iranian wrestler was out of bounds for a move that was awarded points. The result of that appeal is to be determined.
The final Armenian Greco-Roman wrestler to take the mat was Slavik Galstyan. Having qualified for the Paris Olympics through a “wrestle-off” during the 2023 World Championships, Galstyan was already fighting against the odds. His first two rounds ended in his favor. Galstyan picked up a 3-2 win over Andrés Montaño of Ecuador and a 3-2 win over Mamadassa Sylla of France. He was one win away from a shot at gold and a shock to the 67 kg Greco-Roman bracket. Galstyan’s semifinal opponent was Saeid Esmaeili Leivesi of Iran, and that bout ended 10-4 in favor of the eventual gold medalist. Galstyan felt wronged by the result, despite still having a shot at bronze. Unfortunately, Galstyan suffered a 7-0 loss to Luis Orta of Cuba.
Armenia’s involvement in freestyle wrestling was also underwhelming. Arsen Harutyunyan and Vazgen Tevanyan represented Armenia in freestyle; however, both athletes ended their time in Paris in similar fashion. Harutyunyan got the 57 kg freestyle division underway with a commanding 13-3 win over Mexico’s Roman Bravo-Young. The four-time European champion fell short of a win in the quarterfinals against eventual bronze medalist Gulomjon Abdullaev of Uzbekistan 12-5.
Vazgen Tevanyan also got off to a great start in the 65 kg freestyle division. Tevanyan dominated Goderdzi Dzebisashvili of Georgia 11-0 in the first round, but lost 7-5 to Tömör-Ochiryn Tulga of Mongolia in the quarterfinals. Tevanyan held on to a 5-4 advantage until his opponent performed a two-point move with 12 seconds left. Tevanyan’s coaches challenged that call, stating the opponent was out of bounds before completing the move; however, the challenge was rejected, and the Mongolian got an extra point. Tevanyan was the top-seeded wrestler in the 65 kg freestyle division, making this result an upset.
Weightlifting was the final sport where you could find Armenian athletes competing for Olympic medals, and this Olympic cycle proved to be fruitful.
The first Armenian to compete was Andranik Karapetyan, making his return to the Olympics after suffering a horrific arm injury during his competition at Rio 2016. Karapetyan’s comeback was never about the final result. Rather, he was able to recover, get back into competition and make it to the world’s greatest stage. Karapetyan lifted 170 kg in Snatch and 200 kg in Clean & Jerk for a 370 kg total in men’s 89 kg weightlifting on August 9. That was enough to place Karapetyan seventh out of 12 total competitors. His final Clean & Jerk attempt of 215 kg had the potential of putting him in contention for a medal, but he was unable to make the lift.
Another Armenian weightlifter got ever so close to his first medal in his Olympics debut. Three-time junior world champion Garik Karapetyan competed in the men’s 102 kg weightlifting division and left an impression. At just 21-years-old, Karapetyan lifted 186 kg in Snatch and 212 kg in Clean & Jerk for 398 kg lifted in total. He was unable to lift 218 kg in Clean & Jerk on two attempts, missing out on a bronze medal, as he needed to lift five more kilograms to finish third.
The final Armenian to compete in Paris finished his inaugural Olympics with a medal. Varazdat Lalayan went up against stiff competition in the men’s +102 kg weightlifting division. Two-time Olympic champion Lasha Talakhadze of Georgia and Gor Minasyan of Bahrain rounded off the big three lifters favored to medal. Minasyan represented Armenia at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and won a silver medal. However, only one lifter can represent a nation per weight class. Therefore, Minasyan had to represent another nation at this Olympics.
This was considered one of the best weightlifting sessions at the Olympics. Lalayan, Minasyan and Talakhadze all went bar for bar, and in the end, the man who’s never won anything less than a gold medal — won a gold medal. Talakhadze edged out Lalayan for gold, and Minasyan ended with bronze. Talakhadze lifted 470 kg, Lalayan 467 kg and Minasyan 461 kg.
Of the hundreds of Olympic medals won, Armenia walked away with four — three silvers and one bronze. This is good enough to be considered Armenia’s third-best Olympics performance and tied for the second-best medal count. Artur Davtyan earned silver in gymnastics, Malkhas Amoyan earned bronze in wrestling, Artur Aleksanyan earned silver in wrestling and Varazdat Lalayan earned silver in weightlifting.
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