Valeri Vladimirovich Belenki (, ; born 5 September 1969) is a retired Azerbaijani artistic gymnast who competed in the 1992 and 1996 Summer Olympics.

Career

Belenki was born and raised in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, Soviet Union (present day Azerbaijan), in a Jewish family.

Valery Belenky

He competed for the Soviet Union/Unified Team until 1992 when this federation was disbanded following the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Valery Belenky

Belenki's greatest achievements are the team gold and all around bronze he won with the Unified Team in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. Belenky also won gold in the pommel horse event at the 1991 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, where he competed for the USSR.

Valery Belenky

Because Azerbaijan did not have a gymnastics federation for him to compete for in the 1993 world championships in Birmingham, Belenky instead competed as an unattached athlete. In 1994 he became a German citizen and represented that nation in the 1996 Olympics, helping the team to a seventh-place finish and coming 6th in the all-around.

In 2013, he was elected to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. In 2015, he was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame as a representative of Azerbaijan.

See also

List of select Jewish gymnasts

References

External links

Valery Belenky

1969 births

Living people

Soviet male artistic gymnasts

Azerbaijani male artistic gymnasts

German male artistic gymnasts

Olympic gymnasts for the Unified Team

Olympic gymnasts for Germany

Gymnasts at the 1992 Summer Olympics

Gymnasts at the 1996 Summer Olympics

Olympic gold medalists for the Unified Team

Olympic bronze medalists for the Unified Team

World champion gymnasts

Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships

Sportspeople from Baku

Soviet Azerbaijani people

Azerbaijani Jews

Jewish gymnasts

Olympic medalists in gymnastics

Soviet Jews

International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inductees

Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics

Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg

Naturalized citizens of Germany

Naturalised sports competitors

Competitors at the 1990 Goodwill Games

Goodwill Games medalists in gymnastics