See also: http://vestnikkavkaza.net/articles/sport/30179.html and http://vestnikkavkaza.net/analysis/sport/2012-olympics/30171.html
At the London Olympics, Armenia was represented by 25 athletes in nine sporting events. Compared to the Beijing Olympics, the number of Armenian athletes did not change, but rhythmic gymnastics and taekwondo were added to the number of sporting events. Traditionally, Armenia's main hope for medals has been associated with weightlifting and wrestling. In certain scenarios, it was possible to hope for medals in boxing, shooting and taekwondo. In other events, the Armenians were ruled by the motto “it's not the winning, it's the taking part”.
After the 6 bronze medals won in Beijing in 2008, the Armenian sports officials’ goal was to win an Olympic gold. A fabulous prize of $1 million from the president of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia (NOC), Gagik Tsarukyan, was prepared for the winner. The well-known businessman promised this amount to the Armenian Olympic team four years ago, but it remained unclaimed. This time the head of the National Olympic Committee refrained from official statements, but made it clear that he would do his best for the winner.
In any case, the country did not get a 14th Olympic champion (Armenia has 13 winners in the Games, who have won a total of 17 gold medals). At first, the beginning of the Olympics was unlucky for the Armenian athletes. Norayr Bakhtamyan, an experienced shooter, did not manage to get through to the final, being eliminated before the quarter-finals. Hovhannes Davtyan, an Armenian judoka, was a footstep away from a bronze medal. Armen Nazarian, another Armenian judoka, left the mat even before. Arthur Davtyan, a gymnast, is considered to be a promising athlete, but he has still not brought an Olympic medal to the country (he came 36th in the all-round competition). Swimmers Michael Koloyan and Anahit Barseghyan arrived in London only because of additional vacant positions provided by the IOC and, therefore, did not demonstrate considerable results (45th and 44th places respectively). A much more unpleasant surprise was the defeat of the sole representative of Armenia in boxing, Andranik Hakobyan. Being up, he managed to lose because of a technical knockout in the final 10 seconds of the fight. Athletes for whom getting to the Olympics can already be considered a major success did not overcome the qualifying competitions, and this was quite expected.
The most unpleasant surprise was presented by the weightlifters. One after another, Arakel Mirzoyan, Meline Daluzyan and Ara Khachatryan received “zeros", unable to lift the ordered weight; these were athletes who could really compete for a place on the podium. An unexpected injury to the world champion of 2010 Tigran Martirosyan at the finish of the final pre-Olympic camp in Podolsk added to all the troubles. Against this background, the 11th position of the son of the famous weightlifter Yuri Vardanyan-Norayr looks like an achievement, though it sounds ironic. Expectations were met only in respect of Hripsime Khurshudyan, who won a bronze medal in the heavyweight division.
The fighters had to compensate for the failures of the weightlifters. Arsene Julfalakyan (weight category 74 kg) was a footstep away from the gold medal, almost repeating the achievement of his father and the main coach of Armenia's Greco-Roman wrestling team Levon Julfalakyan, who became Olympic champion at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul. Having reached the finals, Julfalakyan Jr. (pictured) was defeated by Roman Vlasov (Russia) in a bitter struggle. 20-year-old Arthur Alexanyan (96 kg) also did quite well. Arthur participated in two fights with a broken rib for the bronze medal against a Turk and a Cuban, overcoming the pain.
Yuri Patrikeev, for whom these games were probably the last of his career, did not reach the podium. The other wrestlers (1 Greco-Roman wrestler and 3 freestyle wrestlers) returned home empty-handed. In addition, Armen Yeremyan, representing Armenian taekwondo at the Olympic Games for the first time, was defeated by a representative of the host of the competition in the fight for the bronze medal.
Thus, Armenia failed to win any gold medals in London. Knowing the ambitions of the leadership of the NOC, there is no doubt that the outcome of the 2012 Games will result in a serious debriefing.
