He competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki and won a silver medal in the lightweight division.

His father and younger sister died of cholera when he was 3, and the rest of the family suffered malnourishment during the Russian Civil War.

[2] Lopatin's success in local and regional tournaments was interrupted by World War II.

[2] After the war Lopatin resumed his weightlifting career and reigned as the Soviet featherweight champion in 1947, 1948, and 1950, finishing as runner-up in 1945, 1946, and 1949, and in third place in 1951.

He took silver in the division at the 1947 European Weightlifting Championships in Helsinki and gold in the same event at the 1950 edition in Paris.