Armen Bagdasarov

Armen Yuryevich Bagdasarov was born on 31 July 1972 in Tashkent and competed as a judoka at 86, 90 and 100 kg. He won the USSR youth championships in 1990–1992 and took bronze at the 1992 European junior championships for the CIS team. He was a member of the Uzbekistan national team in 1993–2001.

In 1996 he became Asian champion and won silver at the Atlanta Olympics at 86 kg — the first Olympic medal of independent Uzbekistan. He took silver at the 1998 Asian Games (100 kg), won the Asian Championships again in 1999 (90 kg) and silver at that year's Universiade; he was fifth at the 1993 World Championships and competed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He retired from competition in 2001.

In 2001 he became head coach of Uzbekistan's national judo team, and in 2005–2016 he headed the Uzbekistan Judo Federation while directing the Republican School of Higher Sports Skills for martial arts. He was sports director of the International Judo Federation (IJF) from 2007 to 2021 and was elected IJF referee director in 2021. He was awarded an 8th dan in judo in 2017.

He was awarded the Order «Mehnat shuhrati» in 1996, the title Honoured Sportsman of Uzbekistan in 2000 and Honoured Coach of Uzbekistan in 2006, and appeared on a 2001 Uzbek postage stamp honouring the country's athletes.