Soviet-Armenian weightlifter, silver medalist at the Moscow 1980 Olympic Games in the 56 kg class — at just 18 years old.
Over his career Sarkisian set 12 world records and won the World and European Championships twice each, in 1982 and 1983. He was awarded the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR title in 1982 and inducted into the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Hall of Fame in 2007.