1885 is considered to be the date of birth of the Russian weightlifting, when the first club of weightlifting amateurs was opened in Saint Petersburg. It was headed by a physician and professor Vladislav Krayevsky, who was called the "father of Russian weightlifters". Krayevsky’s trainees repeatedly won international competitions; his best student was Ivan Lebedev (the legendary "Uncle Vanya").
At the third Workers' Olympiad in Antwerp (1937) the Soviet weightlifters got the first team place, winning the competition in all weight categories. In the prewar years, a lot of records were set (50 All-Union, 24 of which even exceeded world records). List of Soviet world champions included such names as Grigory Novak, Yefim Khotimsky, Vladimir Krylov, Ruben Manukyan, Moisey Kasyanik, Alexey Petrov, and Alexander Bozhko. In 1946, Soviet weightlifters entered the International Weightlifting Federation and took part in the World Cup in Paris for the first time. Novak from Moscow was the first Soviet athlete who won the world title in the category up to 82.5 kg. Alexander Medvedev was the first world champion in the heavyweight category.
Professional wrestling in the circus and popularisation of athletic sports in Russia is connected with the name of Ivan Lebedev (“Uncle Vanya”). Trained by Dr Krayevsky, Lebedev was a first-class athlete, but he became more renowned as an organiser of the French Wrestling Championship and editor of Hercules sports magazine, the author of popular books on athletics such as "Strength and Health", "Weightlifting", "History of the French professional wrestling."

Nikolay Zherebtsov (1906-1979) was the pioneer of weightlifting in the Republic of Tatarstan. He earned bronze at the 1928 All-Union Spartakiade in the 82.5kg category.
The Republic of Tatarstan is proud of Efrat Timerzyanov (1931-1993), Merited Coach of the USSR; his best trainees are Nikolay Kolesnikov, Ildus Ziyatdinov, Dmitry Prusov, Nikolay Kapitonov.
Arkady Vorobyev was the first Tatarstan-born weightlifter who climbed the Olympic podium. At the 1952 Summer Olympic Games he took third place in the 82,5kg category and during the next Olympics he repeated his bronze success in the 90kg category.
Alexander Kurynov, another legendary athlete from Tatarstan, earned first gold medal for his home republic in the 75kg category during the Rome 1960 Summer Olympic Games. Although he won the Friendship Cup international tournament in 1959, Alexander Kurynov was a complete underdog at the Olympics in Rome. Despite that, he managed to beat Tommy Kono who was called “The Iron Hawaiian” for being undefeatable. After his triumph in Rome, Alexander Kurynov went on to win at world championships (1961, 1962, 1963) and European championships (1960-1963). He set 14 world records.
Nikolay Kolesnikov won the championship title in the 56kg category at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. The athlete who was born in the town of Bugulma lived at that time in the town of Shakhty, Rostov Region, but later returned to his home republic. Nikolay Kolesnikov won world championship titles twice in his career (1977, 1978). Besides, he was silver medallist of the World Championships (1974, 1975).  Today Nikolay Kolesnikov works as a senior coach of the Russian youth national team and Tatarstan’s weightlifting squad.

Masters of Sport of Russia:
M. Ismagilov, F. Zinatullin, M. Sakhabutdinov, Yu. Golubev, G. Umylin, I. Shaikhutdinov, G. Minnakhmetov, r. Fakhrutdinov, I. Petrov, E. Sadykov
Masters of Sport International Level:
Andrey Demanov, Svetlana Shimkova, Anna Mokhina, V. Aliev
Nikolay Kapitonov, a brilliant coach who trained Svetlana Shimkova and Anna Mokhina, did a lot to develop women’ weightlifting in Bugulma. As a result of his devoted work, Shimkova soon entered the list of the world’s top female weightlifters. Among her athletic accomplishments over the past seven years (2005-2012) are two silver medals and world championship title, two gold medals of European Championships.

Kazan became a frequent host for high-profile weightlifting competitions. The city already hosted the junior weightlifting competition as part of the 1st Summer Spartakiade of School Students, Cup of Russia and national championship in 2006.
In 2006 Svetlana Shimkova won national gold and Andrey Demanov finished among the winners of the championship.
A true breakthrough happened at the 2010 Cup of Russia which was held in the Republic of Tatarstan. Our team took four medals! Andrey Demanov, an athlete from the town of Bolgar, claimed the tournament’s gold. Silver went to another outstanding Tatarstan weightlifter Dmitry Khomyakov. Svetlana Shimkova from Bugulma became silver medallist and Nail Gizatullin added bronze to Team Tatarstan’s collection.  
In addition, Artem Okulov snatched victory at the 1st Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.
In 2011 Andrey Demanov topped the podium at the European Weightlifting Championships that took place in Basket Hall, Kazan. Artem Okulov claimed the European junior champion title and won several national and international championships.