Artur Ayvazyan

Artur Ayvazyan

Personal information
Born	(1973-01-14) 14 January 1973 (age 44) Yerevan, Soviet Armenia
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)
Weight	82 kg (181 lb)
Sport
Country	Ukraine (until 2014), Russia (since 2014)
Sport	Sport shooting
Medal record Representing  Ukraine Olympic Games 2008 Beijing 50 m rifle prone ISSF World Shooting Championships 1998 Barcelona 50 m rifle prone, Team 1998 Barcelona 50 m rifle three positions, Team 1994 Milan 50 m rifle three positions, Team 2002 Lahti 50 m rifle prone, Team 2002 Lahti 50 m rifle three positions, Team 2010 Munich 50 m rifle three positions, Team European Shooting Championships 1999 Bordeaux 50 m rifle three positions, Team 1999 Bordeaux 50 m rifle prone, Team 2001 Zagreb 50 m rifle three positions 2003 Plzeň 50 m rifle prone 1993 Brno 50 m rifle three positions (Junior) 1999 Bordeaux 50 m rifle three positions 2005 Plzeň 50 m rifle prone
Updated on 11 October 2012.

Artur Surenovych Ayvazyan (Armenian: Արթուր Այվազյան; Ukrainian: Артур Суренович Айвазян, born 14 January 1973) is an Olympic shooter for Ukraine and Russia who won a gold medal in the 50 metre rifle prone event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Born in Armenia, Ayvazyan took up shooting in 1985 and moved to Ukraine in 1990, when he competed in his first major international tournament as a junior. He won one medal as a junior, in 1993, before moving up to the senior division in 1994. He moved to Simferopol in 1997 to train with a new coach and captured his first ISSF World Cup victory the following year. As of 2012 he has participated in every edition of the Olympics since 2000 and has won six World and seven European Championship medals in individual and team events, including his junior bronze from 1993. In 2014 he began competing for Russia.

Ayvazyan was born on 14 January 1973 in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, then part of the Soviet Union. He took up sport shooting in 1985 and moved to Lviv in what is now Ukraine in 1990, after his parents were unable to pay the bribe to get him into the Armenian State Institute of Physical Culture. There he entered a local infantry school and participated in his first major international tournament, the European Junior Championships in Arnhem, Netherlands, where he placed 4th in the 10 metre air rifle event. He next appeared at the European Junior Championships 1993 in Brno, Czech Republic, where he won a bronze medal in the 50 metre rifle three positions competition and finished eighth in both the 10 metre air rifle and the 50 metre rifle prone categories.

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