 Nazik Avdalyan and Tigran Gevorg Martirosyan both became World Weightlifting Champions in 2009 and 2010, respectively.Before the establishment of an independent Armenia, Armenian weightlifters like Yurik Sarkisyan, Oksen Mirzoyan and Yurik Vardanyan competed for the Soviet Union and were very successful.Vardanyan won the gold medal at the 1980 Summer Olympics, becoming the world's first weightlifter to achieve 400 point totals in the 82.5 kg weight category.