Olympic Weightliftng

I just wrote an artcle for a powerlifting site, writing about Olympic Style weightlifting. Back in the 1960's I was a member of the Lower Peninsula Weightlifting Club and trained under Bob Crist. Bob later became national chairman of the AAU weightlifting committee.

For many years the United States virtually dominated international weightlifting under the leadership of Bob Hoffman, owner and president of York Barbell company. The Soviet Union and some of the other Communist countries began to employ steroids and Bob Hoffman began to slow down in his later years. Professional bodybuilding began to grow under the leadership of someone who hated American weightlifting.

Traditionally, weightlifting, powerlifting, and bodybuilding had been part of a sports community called "the iron game". Most people in the sport did some of all of it. John C. Grimek won major titles in bodybuilding and represented the U.S. in weightlifting in the 1936 Olympics. When I was competing in the mid 1960's in Virginia the dominate 148lb lifter was also the dominate bodybuilder for several years. Powerlfting was just becoming established as a separate sport and most powerlifters also competed in weightlifting.

I think I will add weightlifting to the subjects for this blog.Look for some more on the topic.