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Well-known weightlifter, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR, merited coach Vardan Militosyan died late Wednesday evening after a long illness, the press service of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia reports.

Vardan Militosyan was born on 8 June 1950 in Gyumri. He was awarded the Honored Master of Sports of the USSR title in 1976.

A year after joining the Soviet weightlifting team, Militosyan won a gold medal at the 1976 European Weightlifting Championships and a silver medal at the 1976 World Weightlifting Championships. Militosyan repeated his success in 1978, becoming a two-time European Champion. The Soviet team chose Militosyan to compete at the 1976 Summer Olympics, where he won an Olympic silver medal. Militosyan became the first weightlifter from Armenia to win an Olympic medal. He left the Soviet national team in 1979. Militosyan set four world records during his career, all in the clean and jerk.

In 1980, Militosyan completed his weightlifting career after he was not selected to join the Soviet team at the 1980 Summer Olympics. He went on to work as a weightlifting coach in his native Armenia.