Vladas Česiūnas
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men's canoe sprint | ||
| Olympic Games | ||
 |
1972 Munich | C-2 1000 m |
| World Championships | ||
|
1973 Tampere | C-2 10000 m |
|
1974 Mexico City | C-2 1000 m |
|
1974 Mexico City | C-2 10000 m |
|
1975 Belgrade | C-2 10000 m |
 |
1973 Tampere | C-2 1000 m |
 |
1971 Belgrade | C-1 1000 m |
Vladislovas "Vladas" Česiūnas (born March 15, 1940 in Vyšnialaukiai, Jonava District Municipality) is a Lithuanian sprint canoeist who competed in the early 1970s. He won one Olympic medal and six ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships medals during his career. He later became known for his role in "The Česiūnas Affair" when he defected from the 1979 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Duisburg, West Germany (now Germany near Düsseldorf) only to return to the Soviet Union afterwards for his "misconduct".
At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Česiūnas won gold in the C-2 1000 m with Yuri Lobanov. He also won six canoe sprint world championship medals with four golds (C-2 1000 m: 1974, C-2 10000 m: 1973, 1974, 1975), one silver (C-2 1000 m: 1973), and one bronze (C-1 1000 m: 1971).
At the 1979 canoe sprint World Championships in Duisburg, West Germany, Česiūnas attended the event as a spectator. During the event he vanished, the first in a series of defections that would later include principal ballet dancers Alexander Godunov, Leonid Kozlov and Valentina Kozlov, and figure skaters Oleg Protopopov and Ludmila Belousova.
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