 He was a clear gold medal favorite for the 1984 Summer Olympics, but was unable to participate at them because of the 1984 Summer Olympics boycott.Sarkisyan continued to rank among the top weightlifters in the world for years after the 1984 Olympic Games, but was not included in the USSR weightlifting team at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.After that, he did not train for a while and thought about the end of his weightlifting career.