// Workers AI · dad joke modeWho's Mel Daluzyan? A mel-odist, of course.

Mel Daluzyan

Personal information
Born	(1988-04-20) 20 April 1988
Height	1.6 m (5 ft 3 in)
Weight	69 kg (152 lb)
Sport
Country	Armenia
Sport	Weightlifting
Event	69 kg
Medal record Women's Weightlifting Representing Armenia World Championships 2006 Santo Domingo 63 kg 2010 Antalya 69 kg European Championships 2007 Strasbourg 63 kg 2008 Lignano Sabbiadoro 63 kg 2010 Minsk 69 kg

Mel Daluzyan (Armenian: Մել Դալուզյան, born 20 April 1988 in Leninakan, Armenian SSR) is an Armenian weightlifter. He received the Honoured Master of Sports of Armenia title in 2006 and was twice European Women's Weightlifting Champion in the 63kg class, in 2007 and 2008.

Biography

He was born as Meline Daluzyan and states that already as a young child he never felt as a girl. He started weight training in 2002 under the leadership of Artashes Nersisyan. His parents opposed his passion at first but later became proud of his achievements. He is a seven-time Armenian Champion and won the Junior European Championship in both 2005 and 2006.

Daluzyan won a bronze medal at the 2006 World Weightlifting Championships. Daluzyan was the first weightlifter from Armenia to win a World medal in the female category. The next year, Daluzyan won a gold medal at the 2007 European Weightlifting Championships and was the first Armenian to become a European Champion in weightlifting. Daluzyan repeated this success at the 2008 European Weightlifting Championships. Daluzyan was set to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, but suffered an acute attack of pancreatitis two weeks before the Olympics and was forced to withdraw from the competition. Hripsime Khurshudyan competed as substitute.

In 2010, Daluzyan won a silver medal at the 2010 European Weightlifting Championships and a bronze medal at the 2010 World Weightlifting Championships. At his Olympic debut in the 2012 Summer Olympics he was unable to set a total.

Daluzyan's samples from the 2012 Olympics were re-analyzed in May 2019 and found to be positive for dehydrochlormethyltestosterone metabolites and stanozolol metabolites. Consequently, Daluzyan was disqualified from the Olympic Games.

In 2015, Daluzyan participated in an LGBT event in Armenia and subsequently faced discrimination. In 2016 he moved to the Netherlands where he received asylum and has been working as a trainer.

In 2019, Daluzyan was commended by the Amsterdam mayor for having stopped a robbery in an Amsterdam supermarket. He sustained stabbing wounds during the incident.

Film

The 2022 documentary film Mel by Paul Cohen and Inna Sahakyan describes Daluzyan's jouney from championship to exile. When the partial financing of the film by the Armenian government caused some controversy in the country, both Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and former Prime Minister Armen Darbinyan voiced their support for the film and for Daluzyan.

External links

• Mel Daluzyan at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)