Who was Arnold Schwarzenegger's idol

Has anyone wondered: who was Schwarzenegger's idol as a child? He was a famous Soviet weightlifter!





Arnold Schwarzenegger was born on July 30, 1947 in the Austrian village of Thal near the city of Graz. His father wanted his son to become a football player, and it was this sport that Arnold was engaged in as a child, Arnie did not dream of a career as a bodybuilder, and his physique did not look like a hero at all. Sloping shoulders, thin legs - this is what a teenager looked like at the age of 14. But the incident turned his whole life upside down.



In 1961, when Arnold, having seen enough films and magazines with portraits of bodybuilders, began his first steps in training with weights, the World Weightlifting Championship was held in Vienna. Schwarzenegger was lucky enough to see the strongest people on the planet in person.



The guy was especially impressed by the legendary Soviet athlete Yuri Vlasov. The Russian hero, who confidently won that championship, became an example to follow.



After the competition, the Austrian coach Heltke, with whom Schwarzenegger began to train, introduced him to Vlasov. The champion shook hands with the boy and said: "Train and victory will always be yours. The main thing in sports is not to be a coward!"



After this meeting, Arnold firmly decided that he would become a real athlete. The same as the Soviet weightlifter Yuri Vlasov. The next meeting of the two strongmen took place only twenty-seven years later. In 1988, Schwarzenegger flew to the Soviet Union to participate in the filming of the film Red Heat. After the end of filming, the most famous bodybuilder in the world said that he would not fly away until he saw his childhood idol Yuri Vlasov.



The meeting of legends took place at the Athletics club on Aviamotornaya Street. It was not easy for Yuri Petrovich to recognize in the mighty 40-year-old man a thin, lanky teenager from the distant 1961. Schwarzenegger admitted that he owes much of his success in his athletic career to that meeting in the locker room of the Stadthalle in Vienna.



Arnold Schwarzenegger presented Vlasov with his photo with the inscription: "To my idol Yuri Vlasov, with love and bow."