Weightlifting

Olympic-style weightlifting, sometimes called Olympic weightlifting is a single competitor sport where an athlete endeavors to lift a barbell loaded with the most weighted plates for one repetition. This is called a maximum-weight single lift. While competitive athletes compete in national and international weightlifting events, weightlifting components are utilized in the training techniques of a myriad of professional athletes of all sports, in order to create greater base strength and explosive energy expenditure.

Amateur users and the broader public have championed weightlifting techniques and equipment for muscle and cardiovascular building activities called strength training or weight training. Due to its perceived aspects of raw muscular exertion, weightlifting has a long history of being employed to test and compare the strength and power of competitors. Olympic-style weightlifting should not be confused with "body building" competitions, where competitors use weightlifting techniques but are judged based on the size and composition of muscle mass, rather than on the lifting of weight itself.

Olympic-style weightlifting is one of the earliest sports to continuously remain in all Olympic games, with the exception of the 1900, 1908, and 1912 games. It was developed into its own international sport beginning in the nineteenth century, and in fact is one of the few sports to have been practiced in the 1896 Athens Games, where it transferred over into the Modern Olympic Games.

While different incarnations of the lifting movements have changed over time, since 1972 only two movements are used in competitions. First, using a wide-grip hand formation: the weighted bar is lifted from the ground to above the competitor's head in a fluid and continuous motion. This is called the snatch. In the second competition stage, the athlete uses a close-grip handhold to lift the bar from the floor to shoulder level, also in one fluid motion. After a brief pause, the athlete then lifts the bar overhead while spreading their feet. This is called the clean and jerk.

Origins and History

Competitions to determine who could lift more weight are common throughout human history. Early Greek, Egyptian, and ancient Chinese source materials all document various competitive feats of strength involving weightlifting. In 1000 BCE, Chinese military recruits had to pass weightlifting exams in order to gain enlistment in military service. Ancient Greek pottery depicts figures lifting stones for sport, referencing early sporting competitions of strength. The cultural history of weightlifting has also been heavily mythologized. In its solitary nature and ability to be performed using whatever heavy equipment happens to be on hand, the sport of weightlifting stresses organic and simple repetition, underlying an openness of the sport that can be mastered through consistent practice.

Milo of Croton, a Greek Olympic wrestling champion in sixth century BCE, was said to have won five consecutive Olympic Games, as well as achieving seven wins in the Pythian Games, ten wins in the Isthmian Games, and nine wins in the Nemean Games. Greek athletes who won titles in each of these four games were awarded the title of Periodonikes(multiple champion). Milo was crowned Periodonikes five times during his athletic career. His great strength was attributed to his weightlifting regimen.

Using the same technique as Olympic-style weightlifting, where the weight is brought to shoulder level and then hoisted overhead, it is said that Milo trained using a newborn calf. Each day Milo allegedly lifted the calf over his head. It was said that as the calf grew to be a bull, pound by pound each day, Milo's strength grew with it, until he was easily able to lift the full grown bull over his head with the same effort as lifting it as a calf years before. While the story is rich in reimagined details, it nonetheless underscores the cultural legacy of weightlifting.

In 1896 weightlifting was included in the Field events of the Olympic games, In these competitions, athletes were judged on their ability to perform both one-handed and two-handed lifts, with separate winners declared for each type. This was the only Olympic event to use weighs specifically for competition. Irrespective of weight and size, all athletes competed against one another. It was only in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics that athletes were divided into weight classes.

The competition featured a total of three lifts: one-handed snatch, where the weight was brought from the floor to shoulder height; one-handed clean and jerks, where the weight is brought from shoulder height to above the competitors head; and two-handed clean-and-jerk movements. During the next Olympic Games, hosted by Paris in 1924, two more lifts were added to the weightlifting competition: the two-handed press and the two-handed snatch. For the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, weightlifting dropped all one-handed lifts and the sport became standardized in its modern form by having competitors only lift using two-handed snatches, clean and jerks, and clean and presses.

By 1932, the weight divisions had been further refined, creating five separate classes of lifters. In the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, the clean and press was eliminated, creating the two exercises that exist in all weightlifting competitions, the snatch, and the clean and jerk. During the 2000 Sydney Olympic games, the weight categories were again refined, creating eight different weight classes for men and seven for women. Men compete in classes from 123 lbs. to over 231 lbs. Women compete in weight classes ranked from 106 lbs. to over 165 lbs.

The female category of weightlifting was introduced in the 2000 Sydney Olympics; however, examples of female weightlifting competitions can be dated back to at least the early 1930s, when the British Amateur Weight Lifting Association hosted a women's weightlifting competition. The Miss Universe bodybuilding competition was established in 1965, demonstrating that women had incorporated weightlifting training regimens long before the existence of a sanctioned Olympic event.

Rules and Regulations

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) is responsible for establishing and altering the rules of weightlifting competitions. The organization was founded in 1905 and governs all official weightlifting events. Each competitor chooses the amount of weight they will attempt to lift, with the athlete who selects the lightest weight competing first. Each competitor is allowed three attempts to snatch and three attempts to clean and jerk. Three judges monitor whether the lift was successful. The athlete is given one minute for each lift, and once a lift is judged to be successful, the score is recorded. The highest score for each lift is what is used to record the official value of the lift, but two successful lifts of a given weight are required for the attempt to be considered valid. After the highest score is collected for both snatch and clean-and-jerk lifts, the total weight lifted in movement is added together. The competitor with the highest combined weight is declared the winner. In the event of a tie, the competitor who has the lowest body weight is declared the winner.

Olympic weightlifting equipment consists of a barbell, weighted plates, and collars. The men's Olympic barbell has a base weight of 44 lbs., with an overall length of 86.6 inches and a bar diameter of 1.1 inches. For women competitors, the barbell weighs 33 lbs., with a length of 79.1 inches and a diameter of 0.98 inches. The weighted plates are coated in rubber to allow the lifter to drop the entire weighted barbell after the completion of a lift. Collars cap the end of the barbell to secure the weights in place. Each collar weighs 5.5 lbs. Lifters wear one-piece, form-fitting singlets, exposing the elbows and knees in order to allow the judges to properly judge whether a lift was successful. In 2011, however, the IWF ruled that athletes may wear a full-body, form-fitting covering underneath the singlet. This rule change allows lifters with religious practices prohibiting the showing of skin to compete in weightlifting competitions. Additional optional equipment, such as a weightlifting belt to provide lower back support and protection, chalk to increase grip and prevent bar slippage, and tape to reduce injury to joints, are also permitted under IWF rules.

Strategy and Tactics

Modern Olympic weightlifting involves only two lifts: snatches and clean and jerks. Competitors first attempt the snatch. Two different approaches are used in a snatch for competition. The first, a squat snatch, involves lifting the bar up while swinging one's body underneath the bar in a squatted position while keeping the arms straight. This position reduces the height that one needs to lift the bar, thus allowing for a competitor to lift a greater amount of weight overall. The second approach is to use a split-snatch movement. Similar to a squat snatch, the competitor swings one's body underneath the straight-armed raised bar but splits the legs so that one foot is placed in front of the body and the other behind, in the split position, thus allowing the competitor to lift the bar lower by using a repositioning of the body to slide under the bar, thus increasing the amount of weight an athlete is able to lift up from the floor. The movement is completed when the athlete stands up with the bar held in position overhead.

The clean and jerk is actually two separate movements, combined together in a competition. First the competitor, bending at the knees with a straight back, will grip the bars in a supinated position, meaning the palms of the hands are facing the body. Competitors often employ a hooked grip as well, tucking the thumb between the barbell and their fingers. As the bar is lifted off the floor by straightening the legs, the competitor then explodes upward, raising the bar quickly to shoulder height while bending the knees into a squat. Resting the bar on one's shoulders in front of the body, the competitor then slowly stands up, completing the clean phase of the movement, and pauses briefly in preparation for the jerk component. With one's back still vertically straight, the competitor then attempts the jerk movement. Bending at the knees to lower the body slightly, the athlete once more explosively propels the bar off the shoulders while simultaneously dropping underneath the bar in a similar movement to a split snatch, where one leg is brought forward in front of the body while the other moves behind it. After regaining one's balance, the competitor then moves out of the split position, keeping the arms straight and moving the feet into shoulder width position. Once completed, the bar is dropped to the floor.

Professional Leagues and Series

The main weightlifting event is the summer Olympics. Only events hosted by IWF are eligible for world record setting and qualification into the Olympic games. Regional championships for junior and youth competitors, as well as university championships and Olympic qualifications, exist globally, complementing the non-IWF hosted local and national weightlifting associations. In order to progress in Olympic weightlifting, athletes must qualify in officially sanctioned exhibitions. While Olympic events occur only every four years, World Championships are hosted every non-Olympic year. In the United States, the National Championships take place every spring, largely composed of the winners of State Championships, which in turn are made up of the winners of local contests.

Popularity

With the proliferation of strength training, the international reputation of bodybuilding competitions, and its adaptation in training regimens of all sports, weightlifting is familiar worldwide to a variety of audiences. While the sport itself has yet to fully capture spectator attention, particularly in North America and Western Europe, Olympic events remain popular. Owing to the fact that competitors lift an average of twice their bodyweight in only a few seconds, using graceful and eloquent movements, the sport is appreciated not just for its feats of strength but also for the displays of dexterity, balance, and concentration.

Bibliography

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