The sport of Weightlifting is a test of pure strength – the oldest and most basic form of physical competition.
2012 Summer Olympic Weightlifting Events Key facts
Venue: ExCeL
Dates: Saturday 28 July – Wednesday 8 August
Gold medals: 15
Athletes: 260 (170 men, 90 women)
Weightlifting: A history of the sport
Early ‘strongman’ contests developed into the modern sport of Weightlifting during the 19th century.
Today, the world’s strongest men and women regularly lift more than three times their body weight. They need to combine power, speed, technique, concentration and timing.
Weightlifting at the Games
One and two-arm lifting contests formed part of the Athletics programme at the first modern Olympic Games at Athens 1896. Weightlifting was introduced as an individual sport at Paris 1924, and has featured at every Games since. The first women’s events were held at Sydney 2000.
How to play – and win
The aim of Weightlifting is simple – to lift more weight than anyone else. Competitors perform two types of lift – the ‘Snatch’ and the ‘Clean and Jerk’.
In the snatch, the bar is lifted from the floor to above the head using one smooth movement.
The ‘Clean and Jerk’ is a two-stage action – the bar is brought up to the shoulders before being ‘jerked’ over the head using arm and leg strength.
In each case, it must be held at arm’s length above the head for at least two seconds. Lifters are allowed three attempts at every weight.
Jargon buster
* Press out: An illegal move where the Lifter bends the arms while holding the bar overhead, then presses them out to make them straight.
* No lift: A lift that is judged to be illegal.
* Squat: To drop while bending the legs with the feet to either side.
* Hooking: A technique used to hold the bar, where the thumbs are placed around the bar and underneath the index and second fingers.
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