Greek Weightlifter Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

Perikles Kakousis

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

Shown is Greek Weightlifter Perikles Kakousis on his way to winning the “Two Hand Lift” Weightlifting competition at the 1904 Summer Olympics held in St. Louis, Missouri. This lift of 246 pounds was good enough for the Gold Medal and set the world record at the time (breaking the old record by a mere four ounces.) The judge Dr. R.Tait McKenzie (a noted physical training author, btw) looks on from the right. At the same games, Kakousis also competed in the Tug ‘O War event although his team only finished tied for 5th place.

Dimitrios Tofalos 1906

Posted on Tuesday, September 1st, 2015 by John Wood

A look at Dimitrios Tofalos lifting an excellent globe barbell… this is thought to be taken sometime in 1906 when Tofalos was training for what would later become known as the ‘Intercalated Games.‘ Tofalos won the “two arm lifting event” with a successful effort with 142.5 KG on his third attempt.

Dimitrios Tofalos

Posted on Saturday, April 28th, 2012 by John Wood

Demetrius Tofalos was a Greek weightlifter who survived a serious childhood
injury and went on to defeat the great Austrian lifter Josef Steinbach to win the Gold Medal at the 1906 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. The winning effort for Tofalos in the “two-hand barbell lift” (i.e. clean and jerk) was 142.4 Kilograms.

t really was a “clean” and jerk, according to the rules of the time, lifters were penalized if the barbell touched any other part of the body as
they brought it to their chest. Tofalos’ record stood for the next eight years.

Tofalos was also a very successful professional wrestler although a defeat by American Champion Frank Gotch forced his retirement. Tofalos eventually went on to manage “The Golden Greek” Jim Londos.

Today, a sports arena is named in Tofalos’ honor in his hometown of Patras, Greece.