In Sydney, in the 77th year, a three-time Olympic champion in a triple jump, “the legendary Soviet athlete” Viktor Saneev, died from a massive heart attack, follows from a message on the website of the All-Russian Athletics Federation.
The organization emphasizes that Saneev was the only one in the world “who managed to become a three-time Olympic champion in a triple jump.”
“In addition to victories at the Games in Mexico City, Munich and Montreal, Saneev won silver at the Moscow Olympics, twice won the continental championships in the summer and six times in the winter, and improved world records three times. At the 1968 Games in Mexico City, the world record was updated five times in a tournament, twice by Italian Giuseppe Gentile, once by Nelson Prudencio from Brazil, and twice by Saneev, ”the Athletics Federation points out.
Saneev won the Olympic Games in 1968, 1972 and 1976, at the 1980 Games in Moscow Saneev won silver.
At the same time, the portal “Georgia Online” notes, the athlete was recognized in Georgia as the best athlete of the twentieth century.
He was born, lived and trained in Sukhumi. He started as a high jumper, but in 1963 he retrained to a triple jump.
Saneev had dual citizenship – Georgian and Australian. Recently, he just lived on the territory of the “green continent”, adds “Gazeta.ru”.
It is also known that Saneev sold all of his Olympic medals and after retirement worked as a physical education teacher and pizza delivery service in Sydney.
Source: Rosbalt
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