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Saturday 4 May 2019

Weightlifting

Weightlifting is a test of strength by lifting weights attached to both ends of a metal pole (barbell).

There are two lifts, the snatch and the clean and jerk. The aggregate weight lifted at both is taken into consideration.

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Competition to establish who can lift the heaviest weight has been recorded throughout civilization, with the earliest known recordings including those found in Egypt, China and ancient Greece.

Weightlifting formed part of the Ancient Olympic Games.

In the 19th century weightlifting was a popular attraction at many of the leading circuses.

Weightlifting was introduced as a sport in mid nineteenth century and held its first world championship in 1891. The weightlifters were not categorized by weight at this time.

The first Olympic Games of 1896 included weightlifting. It featured in the Field event of the predecessor to today's track and field or athletics event.

The actor who played "Oddjob" in Goldfinger, was a Japanese-American who won a Silver weightlifting medal at the 1948 Olympics.

Soviet weightlifter Vasily Alekseyev set 80 world records between 1970 and 1977 more than any other athlete in any sport. He received bonus funds every time he set a world record by the Soviet government (Soviet athletes were funded by the state); so he made it a point to gradually increase his world records by 1.1 pounds or 0.5 kg.


Weightlifter Chua Koon Siong fainted for seven minutes after smashing his face with the barbell during his first lift at the 1981 Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship. Still bleeding, he completed his remaining lifts and won the gold medal with a final lift of 137.5 kg.

As early as 1986, there were official world championships awarded to women weightlifters such as Karyn Marshall and Judy Glenney However, it was not until the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney that an official Olympic competition for women was introduced.

Source Europress Encyclopedia

1 comment:

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