David Rigert

Olympic medal record
Men's weightlifting
Representing  Soviet Union
	1976 Montreal	– 90 kg
World Championships
	1971 Lima	– 90 kg
	1973 Havana	– 90 kg
	1974 Manila	– 90 kg
	1975 Moscow	– 90 kg
	1978 Gettysburg, Pennsylvania	– 90 kg

David Adamovich Rigert (Russian: Давид Адамович Ригерт) (born March 12, 1947, in the village of Nagornoye, Kokchetav Oblast, Kazakh SSR) is a former Olympic weightlifter for the Soviet Union. Rigert became one of the greatest weightlifters in history. He is of German ancestry.

Rigert was the son of the Russian-German Adam Adamowitsch Rigert and Jelisaweta Rudolfowna Horn. His grandfather Adam Rigert worked at the estate of Baron Rudolf Horn, an officer of the czar. Baron Horn's daughter Lisbeth married Adam Rigert's son Adam.

During World War II his father was brought to the Ural Mountains as forced laborer together with other Russia-Germans and his mother and children were brought to North Kazakhstan. David and his siblings grew up in Kuban territory near the Caucasus.

Rigert began practicing weightlifting on his own in 1966, utilizing the training methods of former Soviet weightlifting champion Arkady Vorobyov. Two years later, while serving in the Soviet army, Rigert earned the title Master of Sports of the USSR. After demobilization he lived and trained in Armavir. In 1969 he met the famous Soviet coach Michael Rudolf Plukfelder, who invited him to Shakhty, where Rigert began training at Trud Voluntary Sports Society under Plukfelder. Just 11 months later, in 1970, Rigert made the USSR national team and debuted internationally, earning the bronze at the World Championships. In 1971 at the RSFSR Championships, Rigert set his first World record. Thus began an extraordinary series of 68 World records which were overshadowed only by fellow countryman and weightlifter Vasiliy Alekseyev's achievements.

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