Strict Bench Press

Posted on Friday, September 29th, 2017 by John Wood
Here’s something you don’t see every day — or pretty much at all these days. Could this bench press get any stricter? Other than the thumb-less grip, I dig it. Dave Moyer of Reading, PA is shown here setting a new Mid-Atlantic bench press record of 255 lbs. in the 123 lb class — That’s more than double bodyweight! Moyer won his class that day with a 1130 lb. total. He was not a tall man.

Interestingly, Moyer was also an Olympic weightlifting champion as well, winning the 123 lb. class at the 1963 AAU Senior Nationals. Lifting for the Reading Barbell Club, Mayor had prior set a world record in his weight class for the Press at the 1958 Middle Atlantic Championships with a lift of 240 lbs, bettering the previous mark of Vladimir Stogov of Russia by 2-1/2 lbs.

Dave Mayor

Posted on Monday, March 13th, 2017 by John Wood

Dave Mayor, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was a member of the U.S. Weightlifting team at the 1936 Berlin Olympics where he finished in 12th place with a 352.5 kg (775.5 lbs) total (Press: 100 kg, Snatch: 107.5 kg, Clean & Jerk: 145 kg.) Mayor made a 755.5 total at the 1936 Sr. National Weightlifting contest which was good enough for second behind John Grimek. Mayor won the heavyweight class the next year with an 835 lb total, an improvement of 80 pounds.
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Author: John Wood. All contents, including images and text, copyright © 2005-2021 by John Wood and Thunderdome Media Inc. Not to be reproduced without permission. All rights reserved. We will most likely grant permission but please contact us if you would like to repost. IMPORTANT: Equipment and books, courses etc. pictured in blog posts are generally not available for sale unless specifically noted.

The 1936 U.S. Olympic Weightlifting Team

Posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2014 by John Wood

The 1936 US Olympic Weightlifting Team

A look at the U.S. weightlifting team, taken in the Olympic village in Berlin, Germany during the 1936 Olympics. From left to right: Mark Berry, Dave Mayor, Bill Good, John Grimek, Stan Kratkowski, Joe Miller, John Terpak, Walter Good, Bob Mitchell, Tony Terlazzo, John Terry and Dietrich Wortmann. Terlazzo won the Featherweight class with a 312.5 kg total to become America’s first ever weightlifting gold medal winner.