Olympic Weightlifting Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

1948 British Amateur Weight Lifter’s Association Total Medal

Posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2022 by John Wood

The British Amateur Weight-Lifter’s Association (BAWLA) was founded in 1910 and was the governing body of British amateur weightlifting; establishing rules and competition standards for a variety of lifts and feats for many decades to come. In the 1940’s, if you achieved the highest total in the three competitive Olympic lifts (Press, Snatch, Clean & Jerk), aside from fame and renown amongst your peers, you also got one of these nifty medals to wear on your lapel. This medal is shown here roughly three times larger than real life.

Pierre Bonnes

Posted on Friday, September 16th, 2022 by John Wood

Another look at the great French strongman and wrestler Pierre Bonnes. Bonnes is thought to be the first man who snatched 250 lbs. in the “split” style. Many noted strong men of the day ridiculed this style of lifting but it would eventually some become the norm and assist in the establishment of a number of world records in the coming decades.

Frans De Haes

Posted on Monday, June 21st, 2021 by John Wood

Franciscus “Frans” De Haes was a Belgian weightlifter who won the very first gold medal ever awarded in the featherweight class at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp. 1920 was the first time that weightlifting was divided into weight categories. In those days, International weightlifting competition consisted of three events, but probably not the ones you are thinking of: the clean and jerk, the 1-hand snatch, and the 1-hand clean and jerk. The weightlifting event was held outside on the infield of the stadium under a tent where it was cold and dark. The loose cinder surface also made footing difficult. De Haes took the gold with a 220 kg total.

Don Booth

Posted on Friday, April 9th, 2021 by John Wood

Weightlifter Don Booth, captain of the Denver Central YMCA weightlifting team, demonstrates the form that helped him with a silver medal in 165-pound class in the 1962 National YMCA Championships. Denver Central YMCA, meet director of the Rocky Mountain AAU Championships looks on.

In his career, Don Booth won 28 State Olympic Weightlifting Championships in all and six Regional championships (notably being the only person in the United States to win two regions in the same year.) At 38 years of age, Booth weight back to college to finish his degree, and, became the world’s oldest competitive college weight lifter. At he 1972 Pennsylvania state championships, Booth totaled 855 pounds in the press(260), snatch(255), and clean and jerk(340), good enough for second place in the 181-pound class!

Chuck Vinci

Posted on Wednesday, April 3rd, 2019 by John Wood

Chuck Vinci was another great olympic weightlifter from York, Pennsylvania. Though he stood only 4’11” and weighed 123 pounds, he could clean & jerk well over 300 pounds and snatch 220+. Vinci was a Two-time Olympic Gold Medalist (1956 and 1960), Seven-time world Senior National Champion (1954-1956,1958-1961) and set Twelve World Records during his career.

Svend Olsen

Posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2018 by John Wood

Here’s a rare shot of the Danish weightlifter Svend Olsen lifting in the light-heavyweight class at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. Svend finished with the Silver medal after posting a 360 kg total (102.5 kg Press, 107.5 kg Snatch, 150 kg. Clean and Jerk).

This lift appears to be Olsen’s third Snatch attempt of 112.5 kg (which was not passed.) Olsen briefly held two official and one unofficial world records but retired shortly afterwards to become a strongman at the Circus Meihe.

Elwood Holbrook – Master of the Bent Press

Posted on Sunday, April 8th, 2018 by John Wood

Elwood Holbrook took 4th at the 1941 AAU Mr. America Contest AND took home the “Best Arms” award (He had also competed in the afternoon’s weightlifting contest where he finished 6th with a 715-pound total in the 165-pound class.)

While Holbrook was a very talented strength athlete and equally good at bodybuilding as well as weightlifting, his real gift was the bent press — he won the national Bent-Press Championship in a contest held by Sig Klein.

Holbrook was also one of the few men to bent press the famous Rolandow Dumbbell – a feat which he did on his first try and without a warmup. Here’s a shot of a 48-year old Elwood Holbrook bent-pressing 240 pounds — 75 pounds above his bodyweight. That unique dumbbell belonged to Paul Anderson.

Sergio The Weightlifter

Posted on Monday, December 4th, 2017 by John Wood

Like many bodybuilders in the 60’s, Sergio Oliva got his start in Olympic Weightlifting. In fact, he did well enough to compete for his native Cuba at the 1963 Pan-Am games. Though he was very strong, his Olympic lifting ability was actually hampered by his relatively thin waist. The foundation built by Olympic lifting still served Sergio well in his bodybuilding career though, he went on to win the Mr. Olympia Contest in 1967, 1968 and 1969.

The Development of the Clean & Jerk by David P. Webster

Posted on Tuesday, November 28th, 2017 by John Wood

RARE Training Course Teaches You The Secrets of The KING of Lifts!

Back in 1964. Peary Rader himself printed up a fantastic training course entitled The Development of the Clean & Jerk by David P. Webster.

At that time, Webster was the chief weightlifting coach for Scotland and went on to become one of the foremost strength historians of our time. We managed to get our hands on a few ORIGINAL copies of this incredibly rare collectible booklet.

The Development of the Clean & Jerk is an in-depth, technical training manual, going over the finer points of the “King of Lifts” for anyone interested in lifting the maximum amount of weight overhead. 5½” x 8½” inches in size, printed on heavyweight glossy paper, textured stock cover, 46 pages with MANY rare images and diagrams.

Here are a few of the topics covered:

A comparison of the early Clean & Jerk techniques and styles of the 1900’s and how they have changed into modern methods

The “Clean” techniques used by the great early strongmen: Arthur Saxon, Thomas Inch, W.A. Pullum, Mark Berry and Alan Calvert, among others

The “Clean” vs. the “Continental style and the important details that you should know about each

The two unconventional techniques pioneered by Monte Saldo

The “Dive”and “Set” styles of cleaning and the countries that used them successfully pre and post-WWII

Some famous performances of the clean and jerk going all the way back to 1895

Observations of film clips and phot sequences from World Champions and Olympic Games competitors

The 12 technique questions that MUST be answered to lift the maximum amount of weight

A sequence of pictures outlining the technique of Jim Moir, British record holder and Scottish Champion and how he used them to correct two common faults

How to start the lift, and the proper back angles to use

Differences in Asian and Polish starting techniques

The meaning of “ANGULAR VELOCITY” and why you should know all about it

The three “Gold Key” positions and the one “rule” you must follow when pulling from the floor

Positioning the bar and how to properly pass the bar past the knees during the first pull

Analyzation and critique of EIGHT world champion lifters

The four main factors of balance in the clean & jerk and how to keep your balance during a maximum lift

How high does Schemansky, Zabotinsky and Vlasov pull the bar? An interesting comparison of the pulling heights of champion lifters

Summation of forces and how to work your muscles in the correct order

The biggest mistake that lifters make at the start of the lift and how to easily avoid it

The most important part of the pull, and how to engage the second pull

The fully extended position and how to lower the weight correctly and safely

Foot position, and where to hold the bar during the jerk

Elbow action and weight transference

Shoulder mobility in the clean & jerk

The path of movement of the bar during the clean

Common faults and how to correct them

Additional and recent information on better pulling technique

A you can see, this booklet is extremely information-dense and if you are interested in putting the MAXIMUM amount of weight overhead, the tips and techniques highlighted in it will help you do just that.

…Like all of our rare and vintage strength items, there are only so many copies of these courses to go around, and when they are gone, they are gone for good.

Get your copy today!

The Development of the Clean & Jerk by David Webster
_________ $19.99 plus s/h

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.