Hrant Shahinyan was born on July 30, 1923 in the village of Gyulagarak. His family moved to Yerevan in 1930. In 1943 at the age of 20, Shahinyan volunteered to fight in the front line in World War II and received a wounded leg during service. He had to walk with a stick afterward, but after undergoing treatment in 1946 and through much hard work, was able to become a member of the USSR Artistic Gymnastic National Team.
Biography
Hrant Shahinyan began studying gymnastics under Harutyun Gargaloyana after moving to Yerevan. In 1939, he became the undisputed champion of the USSR among juniors. As a member of the Soviet Unionnational team, Shahinyan competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. Shahinyan had qualified for every event. The Soviet team won the Team All-Around gold medal. Afterwards Shahinyan competed in the Individual All-Around, where he won the silver medal, coming in second to Viktor Chukarin, who would not only prove to be Shahinyan's rival, but the most decorated Olympian of the 1952 Olympics. Shahinyan was unable to best Chukarin in the pommel horse either. He tied in second with stablemate Yevgeny Korolkov, resulting in two silver medalists. Shahinyan came in fourth place in the parallel bars. When it came time for the still rings, Shahinyan scored higher than Chukarin and the rest of the participants to win the gold medal of the event and became the Olympic Champion in rings. Two years later at the 1954 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Shahinyan became a World Champion in the pommel horse by winning the gold medal of the event and the Soviet team won the gold medal in the Team All-Around once again. Shahinyan also won a bronze medal in the Individual All-Around. In 1958, Shahinyan founded the Youth Gymnastic Olympic Sports School in the Armenian capital Yerevan, and became the director of the sports school. In 1975, Shahinyan arrived in Damascus to manage the Syrian gymnastics national team for almost 5 years until 1980. Later, he returned to Armenia and lived there until his death in 1996.
Legacy
Shahinyan, who won two gold medals and two silver medals in gymnastics at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, is the first Armenian in modern Olympic history to win an Olympic medal. To highlight the level of success of Armenians in the Olympics, Shahinyan was quoted as saying: in 2014, Shahinyan's statue was erected at the entrance of the Hrant Shahinyan gymnastics school of Yerevan.
