Vyacheslav Lemeshev

Who was Vyacheslav Lemeshev?

Vyacheslav Ivanovich Lemeshev is an amateur boxer from the USSR.

Lemeshev trained at the Armed Forces sports society in Moscow. During his career Lemeshev won 103 fights out of 111. He won the gold medal in the middleweight division at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Lemeshev knocked out four of his five opponents to win the gold medal. He knocked out future World Light Heavyweight champion, American Marvin Johnson in two rounds in a semifinal, avenging an earlier loss to Johnson in the Soviet Union. He then scored a 1st round knockout over Reima Virtanen of Finland to win the gold medal. He also won European Championships in 1973 and 1975 and 1974 USSR Championship. He became the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR in 1972 and was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor in the same year.