Competing as a light heavyweight again, Vardanyan successfully regained his European and World Championships in close competitions to Zlatev, winning by just 2.5 kg in the total in both. At the 1983 World Weightlifting Championships, Vardanyan's friends and teammates Oksen Mirzoyan and Yurik Sarkisyan had also won the gold medal in their respective divisions, meaning that Armenians had come in first in the world in three of the ten divisions.