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ANATOLY ROSHCHINThree-time Olympic wrestling medallist Anatoly Roshchin (left) has passed away aged 83. After being crowned world champion in 1963, the Soviet wrestler headed to the Olympic Games Tokyo 1964 as favourite in the Greco-Roman heavyweight class, only to be beaten to the gold medal by HungaryÕs Istv‡n Kozma. Another silver followed in Mexico City four years later, but a 40-year-old Roshchin finally became Olympic champion in Munich in 1972.Polish Olympic long jump champion Elbieta Krzesiska has passed away at the age of 81. Born in 1934, Krzesiska made her Olympic debut as a 17-year-old in Helsinki in 1952, before setting a world record of 6.35m in Budapest in 1956. That year, she went on to win an Olympic gold medal in Melbourne in emphatic fashion, equalling her own world record to beat the USAÕs Willye White by 26cm. Four years later, she fought back from injury and came close to defending her Olympic title but had to settle for silver behind Soviet athlete Vera Krepkina. Krzesiska also won two European Championship medals, and gold medals at the 1954 World Student Games and the first edition of the University Games in 1959.Leonid Zhabotinsky, who won two Olympic gold medals and set multiple world records during his weightlifting career, has died at the age of 77. Zhabotinsky won his first Olympic title in the heavyweight (+90kg) class at the Olympic Games Tokyo 1964, defeating defending champion Yury Vlasov by setting a new world record in the clean and jerk. World titles in 1965 and 1966 followed before he successfully defended his Olympic crown in Mexico City in 1968, where he was the flagbearer for the Soviet Union at the Opening Ceremony.LEONID ZHABOTINSKYSOVIET WEIGHTLIFTING GREAT WHO CAPTURED TWO OLYMPIC TITLES AND EARNED THE UNOFFICIAL TITLE OF ÒTHE WORLDÕS STRONGEST MANÓPOLISH LONG JUMPER WHO MATCHED HER OWN WORLD RECORD TO WIN AN OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL IN 1956ELBIETA KRZESISKASTEIN ERIKSENNorwegian Alpine skier Stein Eriksen has died at the age of 88. During the 1952 Olympic Winter Games, in his hometown of Oslo, Eriksen became the first male Alpine ski racer from outside the Alps to win an Olympic gold medal, when he was crowned champion in the giant slalom. He also secured a silver medal in the slalom at the same Games. Two years later in •re (Sweden), he became the first Alpine skier to win three world titles at the same World Championships, claiming gold in the slalom, giant slalom and combined.BILL JOHNSONBill Johnson, who skied his way into the record books in Sarajevo in 1984 when he became the first American man to win an Olympic gold medal in Alpine skiing, has passed away at the age of 55. After pulling off a shock victory in a World Cup event in Lauberhorn (Switzerland) a month earlier, Johnson boldly predicted he would win gold in the menÕs downhill in Sarajevo Ð and his confidence was not misplaced. On a course more suited to speed demons than technical skiers, Johnson upset his European rivals with a blistering run to clinch the historic gold medal.HOWARD DAVIS JR.American Olympic boxing champion Howard Davis Jr. has passed away aged 59. Davis, the eldest of 10 children, first learned boxing from his father and enjoyed an outstanding amateur career that included a world featherweight title in 1974 and culminated with a lightweight gold medal at the Olympic Games Montreal 1976. Davis was also awarded the Val Barker Trophy as the outstanding boxer of the 1976 Games, ahead of luminaries such as fellow USA gold medallists Sugar Ray Leonard, Michael Spinks and Leon Spinks.OLYMPIC REVIEW 79OBITUARIES