Norayr is the son of legendary Soviet weightlifter Yurik Vardanyan (1956-2018).

[1] Vardanian initially won the bronze medal in the 94 kg class at the 2009 Pan American Weightlifting Championships but was later disqualified after testing positive for cannabis.

[2][3] He competed for Armenia in the 94 kg weight class at the 2012 Summer Olympics where he placed 11th.

On 6 October 2016, the IWF reported that as a consequence of the IOC's reanalyses of samples from the 2012 Olympic Games, a sample produced by Norayr Vardanyan, who represented Armenia, had returned a positive result.

[5] On 12 January 2017 it was confirmed that because of a doping violation he had been disqualified from the 2012 Olympic Games.