The History of Weightlifting
Weightlifting is a sport contested in the Modern Olympics, and first appeared in the 1896 Games. Since then, the sport has undergone a number of changes, making alterations to the lifts contested, the weight classes and the participation of both genders.
Other People Are Reading
-
What Is Weightlifting?
-
Weightlifting, also called "Olympic Weightlifting" is a sport contested in the Modern Olympics. Lifters are organized by weight class and gender, and compete in two lifts, the snatch and the clean-and-jerk, completed in that order. Each athlete is allowed three attempts in each lift, and the winner is decided by the combined total amount of weight lifted.
The regulations and rules of the sport are decided by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), and national and local level meets are scheduled and officiated by the sport's governing body of each nation. In the United States, this is USA Weightlifting.
Antiquity
-
Weightlifting was not a sport in the Olympics of Ancient Greece. However, it is known that athletes did engage in weight-lifting (as shown by Greek sculptures). The word "dumbbell" originates from this period, as athletes trained by lifting bells that had their clappers removed so they wouldn't make any sound--hence, a "dumb" or muted bell.
-
Modern Olympics Before 1920
-
Weightlifting was one of the sports contested in the first Modern Olympics, held in 1896 in Athens, Greece. During those Games, the competition consisted of two lifts, the "one-hand" and the "two-hand" lift. Seven athletes from five nations competed against each other, irrespective of body weight.
The 1900 Olympics did not include weightlifting, and in 1904, the lifts were changed to the "two-hand" lift and the "all-around-dumbbell". Weightlifting was not a sport at the 1908 or 1912 Olympics, and he games were not held in 1916 because of World War I.
Modern Olympics After 1920
-
At the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, a number of changes were made to the sport. Athletes from 14 nations competed in five weight classes in three lifts: the one-hand snatch, the one-hand clean-and-jerk, and the two-hands clean-and-jerk (now one of the modern lifts).
In 1924, the Olympics expanded weightlifting to include five lifts by adding the two-hand press and the two-hand snatch (now one of the modern lifts). At the 1932 games, athletes competed in three lifts: the two-hand snatch, the two-hand clean-and-jerk, and the two-hand clean-and-press.
These three remained the competition lifts until 1972, when the two-hand clean-and-press was eliminated from competition, leaving the snatch and the clean-and-jerk as the two lifts of modern weightlifting.
Weight Classes
-
The original Olympics did not organize the male competitors by weight classes, and only began grouping competitors by body weight in 1920, dividing them into five classes. Since 1920, the IWF has periodically changed the weight classes; each reorganization renders the previous records obsolete.
Men currently compete in eight weight classes ranging from 56 kg (123 lb.) to over-105 kg (superheavyweight category for any athlete weighing more than 231 lb.). Female weightlifters are organized into seven weight classes that range from 48 kg (106 lb.) to over-75 kg (greater than 165 lb).
Women's Weightlifting
-
While women had been lifting at the club, local, or national levels before 1987, the IWF held the first Women's World Weightlifting Championships in that year. In 2000, the International Olympic Committee added women's weightlifting as an Olympic sport.
-
