Alexey Voyevoda
Alexey Ivanovich Voyevoda (; born 9 May 1980) is a Russian bobsledder, professional armwrestler and politician. Bobsleigh. A professional bobsleigher since 2002, Voyevoda won silver in the four-man bobsleigh event with teammates Philippe Egorov, Alexei Seliverstov, and Alexandre Zoubkov at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. He also won a bronze in the two-man event at the 2008 FIBT World Championships in Altenberg, Germany. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Voyevoda won a bronze in the two-man event. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Voyevoda initially won a gold medal in the two-man  event and a gold medal in the four-man event. Voyevoda received the Order For Merit to the Fatherland Award 4th class with Russian President Vladimir Putin handing the state awards. On 24 November 2017, he was stripped of the 2014 Olympic medals by the International Olympic Committee, following the doping violation of his bobsledding partner Aleksandr Zubkov. On 18 December 2017, Voyevoda received a personal lifetime ban from the Olympic Games due to doping violations at the 2014 Winter Olympics. On 1 February 2018, the CAS removed the sanctions from Alexey Negodaylo and Dmitry Trunenkov in bobsleigh, but upheld  them on their teammates Alexandr Zubkov and Alexey Voyevoda. Arm wrestling. Voyevoda holds a good deal of recognition as a professional arm wrestler, also secured several Russian arm wrestling championships. His triumph over legendary arm-wrestler John Brzenk, was immortalized in the feature-length documentary, "Pulling John", directed by Sevan Matossian. The film, "Pulling John", also chronicles his life and training in Russia. He was defeated by Travis Bagent at the 2003 WAF championship, but won the Zloty Tur 2004 cup one year later, defeating high level armwrestlers such as Bagent, Brzenk, Matt Girdner, and Alexey Semerenko. Voyevoda reclaimed the  WAF championship in 2004 (left- and right-handed) and won the European Championship the same year. After a left hand vendetta match with Alexey Semerenko (winning 4–2) and Travis Bagent (losing 5–1) in 2005, Voyevoda took a break from his professional arm wrestling career to return bobsleigh training until 2007. As of 2007, Alexey Voyevoda returned to the arm wrestling scene once again, he won a vendetta match 6–0 against Michael Todd from USA in Bulgaria on 26 May. After that short comeback he resigned from the armwrestling scene due to his bobsleigh training and Olympic judo training until February  2016. In February 2016 Voevoda decided to come back to Arm Wrestling facing Tim Bresnan but he wasn't able to show the same skills and power of the past and lost the fight 5-1. Politics. Following the September 2016 elections in Russia, Voyevoda became a state deputy from Krasnodar Krai, representing the ruling party, United Russia. Personal life. Voyevoda is a vegan.