Vladimir Parfenovich

Vladimir Parfenowitsch ( Belarusian: Уладзімір Парфяновіч; Russian Владимир Парфенович; born December 2, 1958 in Minsk) is a former Soviet canoeist, three-time Olympic gold medalist and a Belarusian politician.

Sports

At the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, he was able to win three gold medals at the same Olympic Games so far the only canoeist. He was victorious in one kayak over 500 m and together with Sergei Tschuchrai he won competitions in the double kayak over 500 m and 1000 m.

He was also World Champion in 1979, 1981, 1982 and 1983.

Policy

After he ended his sporting career, he worked for the Ministry of Sport in Belarus, the KGB and police units.

In 2000, he stepped up to the parliamentary elections and was successful. He has since been a fierce critic of Alexander Lukashenko, the current president of Belarus. On 3 June 2004, he joined with two other parliamentarians on a hunger strike to protest against the fact that the leader of parliament did not bring their proposals to amend the election laws to the vote. They stopped their hunger strike after 18 days on June 21, when Parliament voted against their proposals.