History of Weight Lifting
Weight lifting was known to be carried out by pre-historic tribes as a test of manhood. It was an important event and the stones used had names and were known to everyone. Heavy stones such as the Blue stones of old Dailly, the Dinnie Stones which weigh in at 785 pounds and the Inver stone are all examples of these ancient weights.
Although it is not possible to establish the exact date of the very first weight lifting championship, it is not hard to imagine the ancient tribes gathering to establish which tribe had the strongest men. Similar events are still in existence today such as the Highland games in Scotland. Certainly the event of weight lifting is shown in Egyptian records and can be found in the writings of both the Chinese and Greek civilisations.
Essentially weight lifting is a sport where individuals attempt to raise a bar on which heavy weights are placed on each end. The sport is a combination of flexibility, power, strength, skill, fitness, technique and mental strength. Informal weight lifting is more commonly known as weight training and can be targeted to develop specific muscle groups.
It is generally thought that weight lifting as a sport first began in Europe around the latter part of the nineteenth century, somewhere around 1880. The first record champion was crowned in 1891. In these early days there were no sub-divisions of the sport, the champion was simply the man who could lift the heaviest weight.
Initially weight lifting was grouped as part of the general field of athletics, and was not included into the Olympic Games until 1920. At these games weight lifting was recognised as a sport in its own right but there were still no weight sub divisions for the competitors. It wasn’t until 1932 that five weight sub-divisions were created together with the three disciplines of snatch, press, and clean and jerk.
The snatch involves the weight lifter moving the weights to above their head in one uninterrupted movement. The clean and jerk is similar but the lift is completed in two stages. Firstly, the weights are lifted to the shoulders where the weights are held until the lifter is ready to jerk the weight above their head and lock their arms straight. The press discipline was abolished from the Olympics in 1972.
Women were not permitted to take part in the Olympic weightlifting sport until the end of the millennium 2000. At the Sydney Olympic Games, women weight lifters competed for the first time. Weight lifting has finally made it a full Olympic sport.
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