One of track and field’s longest-standing world record holders, Yuri Sedykh, died of a heart attack Tuesday, according to the Russian federation.
Sedykh, who won Olympic hammer throw gold at both the Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980 Games – plus silver at Seoul in 1988, was 66.
Competing for the Soviet Union, Sedykh had a world-record throw of 86.74 meters at the 1986 European Championships. In the 35 years leading up to that mark, the men’s hammer world record had been broken 39 times. No one has legally reached or surpassed it in the 35 years since.