Albert Azaryan
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| Country represented |
 Armenia
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| Former countries represented |
 Soviet Union
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| Born |
February 11, 1929 Gharakilisa, Armenian SSR |
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| Residence | Yerevan, Armenia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (175 cm) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Men's artistic gymnastics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Spartak Yerevan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Albert Azaryan (Armenian: Ալբերտ Ազարյան) (born February 11, 1929) is a former Soviet Armenian artistic gymnast who competed internationally representing the Soviet Union. He is the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Champion on the still rings. Azaryan is the first ever gymnast to become an Olympic Champion in Rings twice, a feat that Akinori Nakayama would accomplish twelve years later and that no one else has matched ever since.
He is the first person to do one of the rings most famous variations of the Iron Cross called the Azaryan Cross (not to be confused with the Azarian Roll to Cross), which incorporates a quarter turn to the side.
An artistic gymnastics tournament, the Albert Azaryan Cup, is named after Azaryan and hosted in Yerevan, Armenia.
Azaryan was voted the top Armenian athlete of the 20th century by journalists from the Armenian Sport Journalists Federation.
Albert was born on February 11, 1929 in Gharakilisa, Armenian SSR. His father died when he was 14. Azaryan had to leave school and work as an ironsmith to support his family.
When he was 17, a group of elite Armenian gymnasts gave an exhibition in his town. Afterwards, some teenage boys (including Albert) went on the apparatus and tried to perform the skills they had just seen. The gymnasts were so impressed with Albert that he was invited to move to Yerevan to train with them. After only three years, he became the Armenian champion on rings and earned a Master of Sport ranking.
Azaryan competed at the USSR Championship in 1953. The judges were very strict and Albert felt nervous. When it was his turn, Azaryan pulled himself up on the rings and performed his own special technique. The judges did not give him an assessment at the time but he was invited to the next championship. It would later turn out that the judges had rated Azaryan's innovation as something "unprecedented." This technique Azaryan had performed would later become known as the "Azaryan Cross."
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Wikipedia