The History of Weightlifting in the Olympics

It is inherent in the nature of men to compete as to who is stronger than the other. Though it is not known when the first weightlifting competitions started, it is safe to assume that even though there were no competitions, men found something to tell them who were the strongest amongst them.

Egyptian records, Chinese texts and Greek carvings have shown the images of men lifting heavy objects. In ancient Greece, weightlifting competitions were held to determine who could lift the heaviest rocks. Later on the Greeks invented dumbbells for their weightlifting competitions. The first organised weightlifting competitions are recorded in the 1800’s with the first world champion in 1891. At that time, the world champion was the man who lifted the heaviest weight and his size was not a concern.

Weightlifting was one of the first competitive sports in the first Olympic Games in 1896. However, it was not included in the 1900 games, came back in the 1904 Olympics but disappeared again until the 1920 Olympic Games.

By the 1932 Olympic Games, there were five weight divisions and three disciplines. The disciplines were clean and press, snatch and clean and jerk.

In the snatch, the weightlifter was to lift the barbell from the floor over his head in one continuous motion. The lifter will pull the bar vertically as fast as possible, and then jump under it into an overhead squat position after which he executes a full squat to complete the lift.

The clean and press was practised until the 1972 Olympics. It differed from the clean and jerk in that the weight was pressed directly up from the chest with the arms only, while standing. The jerk required the use of the legs, with the lifter lifting the weights up, sinking into a squat, before standing again. The clean and press was eliminated due to the judges having difficulty deciding whether the lifts were carried out correctly.

There are currently eight weight divisions for men and seven for women. Competitors are to compete in both the snatch and the clean and jerk with the winners being the competitors with the heaviest weights lifted in the snatch, clean and jerk and the two combined.

Weightlifting in the Olympics is not without scandal. The strength of the competitors is always questioned and 11 members of the Greek Olympic weightlifting team meant to compete in the Beijing Olympics testing positive for banned supplements and substances. The 2004 Athens Olympics was also rife with weightlifters testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. Some were even stripped off their medals.

The sport has however survived all these scandals and performances like those from the “Iranian Hercules” Hossein Rezazadeh have kept fans entertained with their jaw dropping displays of power. Weightlifting in the Olympics is bound to continue becoming on of its star attractions.

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