Armenian Olympic medalist Faina Melnik dies at 71
Faina Melnik, a famous discus thrower, a 1972 Summer Olympics champion, the 5th Olympic champion of Armenia, died in an accident in Moscow on Friday at the age of 71, Sport-Express, a Russian daily sports newspaper. Melnik was born in Bakota, Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine in 1945. She became interested in discus throwing at 25.she achieved success when she moved to Yerevan in 1969 and was admitted to the Institute of Physical Culture. At the 1972 Summer Olympics, she broke the Olympic record three times, and set a world record at 66.62 metres. In 1976 she had her best ever discus throw of 70.50 m, but finished only fourth at the 1976 Summer Olympics. Later she continued her career in Moscow where she later worked as a dentist and athletics coach. her most famous pupils the 1988 shot put Olympic champion [Nataliya Lisovskaya] and the 1992 shot put Olympic champion [Svetlana Krivelyova].
