Childhood and youth
Lee Priest was born on July 6, 1972 in a working-class family from Newcastle, Australia, in a poor family, and as a child, like many boys, he had a penchant for various sports, preferring rugby, football and karate.
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Lee Priest in his youth
A little later, he showed interest in working with weights under the influence of his grandfather, who was a freestyle wrestling champion in the army. The mother of the future bodybuilder was involved in weightlifting at an amateur level. Looking at her, the 13-year-old also signed up for the gym. There he was impressed by the bulging muscles of male athletes and photographs of Tom Platz, Eddie Robinson and young Arnie.
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Having set himself the goal of becoming like his idols as quickly as possible, Lee devoted a lot of time to training and a year after starting training, he took part in a youth bodybuilding tournament in Sydney. Then he competed several times in pairs competitions with his mother, and in 1988 he won the Australian junior championship.
This result inspired the young bodybuilder to develop a nutrition and training program, the key points of which were squats with a 340-kg barbell and a bench press with a weight of 240 kg.
Zyzz: biography of a young bodybuilder
In 2011, a man died in Thailand, whose life was short but incredibly bright. This event was a real shock for his family and fans. This young man was Zyzz, whose biography will be presented in this article. So let's get started.
Childhood
Aziz Shavernyan (Zyzz) was born in Moscow in 1989. When the boy was 5 years old, the family moved to Australia for permanent residence. His older brother introduced him to online games. Aziz liked the game “World of Warcraft” most of all. He named his character Zyzz. Soon the boy became a top player. According to his brother, he spent 7 or more hours playing the game every day. His virtual character became muscular, handsome and powerful. Aziz was a pale, thin and small teenager. But one day everything changed. Something turned over in Shavernyan’s head. He sold his character for a hefty sum and bought an annual gym membership.
Training and career
Zyzz, whose biography is so short, began training with the zeal of his virtual character. He studied 5 hours a day and a year later became unrecognizable, turning from a frail teenager into a handsome athlete. Anyone who wants to see this should look at Zyzz before and after (the photos in the article perfectly illustrate the wonderful transformation). Three years later, he was offered a job as an instructor in the gym. At the same time, he took first place at the Sydney Bodybuilding Championships. There he was noticed by a representative of a famous modeling agency and offered a contract for clothing advertising. Aziz confidently walked towards success. Inspired by his victories, he wrote a book called “The Zizz Bible,” where he talked about his training, nutrition, and everything that helped him achieve success. Shortly before his death, Zyzz released his own clothing line. Despite his fame, Aziz still remained a simple, cheerful and interesting guy. And suddenly everything ended so unexpectedly...
Death
At the end of the summer of 2011, Zyzz, whose biography is an object of admiration for many young people, was on vacation with friends in Thailand. While in the sauna, he suddenly became ill. He was taken to the hospital with a suspected heart attack. Despite the fact that the ambulance arrived very quickly, and the doctors repeatedly tried to bring him back to life, everything was useless. An autopsy showed that Aziz was dead before doctors arrived. His death came as a shock to everyone. Shavernyan always said that he never used steroids. Perseverance and long hours of training are two of the things that made the late Zyzz successful. The cause of death given after the autopsy was heart disease. His family told the press that the disease was hereditary. However, even before Aziz’s death, his older brother was arrested for possession of illegal steroids. Therefore, numerous conversations that the cause of Shavernyan’s death was their excessive use are not without meaning. According to the stories of relatives, friends and acquaintances, Zyzz, whose biography was discussed in this article, loved life, enjoyed every moment of it and brought joy to those around him. That's why he had so many fans. The funeral took place in Sydney. More than a thousand people came to them.
Sport
In the early 1990s, Priest decided to go professional, but due to his young age, he was denied a license. However, this did not stop the athlete, and he came to the Niagara Falls competition. There, with the support of the famous bodybuilder Jim Manion, the young man was finally released on stage, but, not having the psychological preparation for such competitions, the young man hesitated and showed the 9th result.
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Despite this, Lee's biography changed dramatically, and at the Ironman tournament he managed to beat the king of bodybuilding Sonny Schmidt, and then enter the top ten at the Arnold Classic, San Jose Pro Invitational, Grand Prix Czech Republic and IFBB San Jose Pro.
After some time, when the bodybuilder reached ideal shape and, with a height of 163 cm, gained weight of 97 kg, due to problems with doping discovered by the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness, Priest had to withdraw his candidacy from a number of prestigious competitions. He was able to return to the podium in 1996.
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Then, over the course of a long professional career, the Australian demonstrated himself as an outstanding athlete, but in the end he won only 2 titles, while taking a dozen prizes.
Remaining outside the podium at the most prestigious Mr. Olympia competition, in 2002 Lee became the first at the IFBB San Francisco Pro competition. The next victories took place in 2006 and 2013 at the Australian Grand Prix and NABBA Mr. Universe tournaments, where the athlete surpassed the famous bodybuilders Ronnie Rockel and Chris Cormier.
Kirill Chakryan: “A bodybuilder is a sculptor who works with a living body”
— Dear Kirill, it’s nice to see your Armenian name in such a “visible” sport as bodybuilding. They say about bodybuilders that they think only about their body for 24 hours. Is it so?
- There is some truth in this. Bodybuilding, in my opinion, is one of the most difficult sports, as it requires dedication 24 hours a day. To achieve ideal proportions, an athlete, like a sculptor, hones his body day after day, which requires a lot of training, especially on lagging muscle groups, as well as devoting a lot of time to sleep and diet. Training, sleep, food - all these three factors are necessary for the growth and changes of muscles in our body. If something is missed, the result is unlikely to be expected.
— Your father, Arkady Chakryan, a weightlifting coach, if I’m not mistaken, has been involved in bodybuilding after fifty years. So age doesn't matter in this sport?
— My father Arkady Borisovich Chakryan has been fond of sports and bodybuilding since childhood. In the nineties, and even during the USSR, there was a real cult of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The desire to get closer to an idol and create an ideal body for themselves then led many to basement rocking chairs, where the guys were lifting weights. However, it is worth noting that in the nineties there were few opportunities. There was no such variety in the choice of sports sections as there is now, so my father, like many then, trained with iron at home. One day, my father brought me to the CSKA weightlifting section, where together we began our journey as professional athletes. He pumped himself and watched my training. Then his father began to study this sport more deeply, which later led him to his appointment as the head coach of CSKA in weightlifting. I note that, being self-taught, he trained candidates for master of sports, masters of sports and helped international masters of sports in preparation for competitions. One of these was Ruslan Albegov, who eventually became an Olympic medalist in weightlifting. It must be said that my father decided to try himself on stage as a bodybuilder for the first time relatively recently. And as a result, he won the Moscow Regional Bodybuilding Championship in the master category - I think he was able to set a good example not only to his peers, but also to young people. It's never too late to try something new and get the bonus of looking great at 50.
Personal life
In July 2000, Priest married Canadian bodybuilder Katie LiFrancos, who was also competing in professional competitions at the time. After meeting, the couple did not think about improving their personal life, and the topic of their conversations was sports.
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Lee Priest and his wife Rachel Goodbun
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One day, Lee felt that he had more than friendly sympathy for a beautiful and pumped-up woman and decided to write her a romantic message. And then, when Katie went to the USA for a photo shoot, the bodybuilder said that he would fly with her.
Until 2005, the couple lived in America and worked together in the gym, improving their abs, biceps and triceps. Then the couple lost interest in each other and filed for divorce, while LiFrancos continued to play sports, and Priest remarried a girl named Rachel Goodbun.
Lee Priest now
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Now Lee Priest has retired from professional sports and, judging by Instagram, continues to be interested in scarring and tattoos, and also hosts his own show on YouTube.
In addition, he became the hero of the documentary film “Lee Priest. White Myth”, and then began his career as a film actor and in 2015–2019 starred in the films “Dumb Criminals: The Movie”, “The Skydiver & the Scarecrow”, “Domino Boys” and “Round Trip”.
