File this under: I WOULD BE DEAD Matthias Steiner (105kg+, Germany) drops 196kg on his neck. Yea…  432 pounds.  On his neck.  Steiner, the defending Olympic Champion, managed to walk away but he was unable to continue in the competition.  Until NBC has it removed, here is a video someone uploaded.  When I saw this, I really thought he would be back for the C&J.  I mean, the guy gets up and shakes it off, or so it seems.  He was officially listed as DNF.  Kinda sad, because I was really looking forward to watching him compete. Article and photos here.
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File this under: I WOULD BE DEAD

Matthias Steiner (105kg+, Germany) drops 196kg on his neck. Yea…  432 pounds.  On his neck.  Steiner, the defending Olympic Champion, managed to walk away but he was unable to continue in the competition.  Until NBC has it removed, here is a video someone uploaded.  When I saw this, I really thought he would be back for the C&J.  I mean, the guy gets up and shakes it off, or so it seems.  He was officially listed as DNF.  Kinda sad, because I was really looking forward to watching him compete.

Article and photos here.

Behdad Salimi (105kg+, Iran) takes gold with a 208kg (457.6lbs) snatch and a 247kg (543.4lbs) C&J for a total of 455kg (1,001lbs).  With an additional attempt, he took a shot at the world record C&J of 263kg but missed the lift. Un. Freaking. Believable.
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Behdad Salimi (105kg+, Iran) takes gold with a 208kg (457.6lbs) snatch and a 247kg (543.4lbs) C&J for a total of 455kg (1,001lbs).  With an additional attempt, he took a shot at the world record C&J of 263kg but missed the lift.

Un. Freaking. Believable.

Ilya Ilyin of Kazakhstan competed in the 94kg division at the Olympics and made quite a statement of strength.  He set 2 new Olympic records and 2 new world records with his lifts. A man weighing 207 pounds, snatched 185kg (407lbs) and had a successful clean & jerk of 233kg (512.6lbs) for a new Olympic and world record.  His total of 418kg (919.6lbs) was also a new Olympic and world record. The most I have gone over head has been 245lbs, and that felt pretty darn cool.  But this guy…..This guy put nearly 513lbs over head.  That is about 305lbs more than he weighs.  If you watch the video, he charged the lift, too.  He did not require a lot of time to think, get reset, or anything of the sort.
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Ilya Ilyin of Kazakhstan competed in the 94kg division at the Olympics and made quite a statement of strength.  He set 2 new Olympic records and 2 new world records with his lifts.

A man weighing 207 pounds, snatched 185kg (407lbs) and had a successful clean & jerk of 233kg (512.6lbs) for a new Olympic and world record.  His total of 418kg (919.6lbs) was also a new Olympic and world record.

The most I have gone over head has been 245lbs, and that felt pretty darn cool.  But this guy…..This guy put nearly 513lbs over head.  That is about 305lbs more than he weighs.  If you watch the video, he charged the lift, too.  He did not require a lot of time to think, get reset, or anything of the sort.

What were you doing when you were 19 years old?  If you were anything like me, you weren’t breaking world records in the Olympics. Zulfiya Chinshanlo set a new world record for the women’s 53kg weight class with a clean & jerk of 131kg.  That is 289 pounds.  Let that sink in for a second.  A 19 year old weighing less than 117 pounds hit a clean & jerk of 289 pounds.  That is more than double her body weight.  In her last attempt, she loaded the bar with 135kg but missed the lift.  Still, she nailed the 289lb C&J and made it look easy.  She only appeared to be really challenged during the jerk. Check out the video here.Another athlete in the 53kg weight class, Cristina Iovu, hit a 99kg (218lbs) snatch.  218 pounds.  218 freaking pounds.  Watch that here.
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What were you doing when you were 19 years old?  If you were anything like me, you weren’t breaking world records in the Olympics.

Zulfiya Chinshanlo set a new world record for the women’s 53kg weight class with a clean & jerk of 131kg.  That is 289 pounds.  Let that sink in for a second.  A 19 year old weighing less than 117 pounds hit a clean & jerk of 289 pounds.  That is more than double her body weight.  In her last attempt, she loaded the bar with 135kg but missed the lift.  Still, she nailed the 289lb C&J and made it look easy.  She only appeared to be really challenged during the jerk. Check out the video here.

Another athlete in the 53kg weight class, Cristina Iovu, hit a 99kg (218lbs) snatch.  218 pounds.  218 freaking pounds.  Watch that here.

NBC put together a really great video about an athletes movements with Olympic lifting.  They recorded her lifts with high speed cameras and then broke it down.  Further proof that moving heavy weight is much more than just “a big person lifting things off the ground”.  Far more to it than that. Watch the video here (Would have embedded the video but NBC has that disabled).
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NBC put together a really great video about an athletes movements with Olympic lifting.  They recorded her lifts with high speed cameras and then broke it down.  Further proof that moving heavy weight is much more than just “a big person lifting things off the ground”.  Far more to it than that.

Watch the video here (Would have embedded the video but NBC has that disabled).

I will be watching the Olympics a little differently this year, specifically the weightlifting.  I would venture a guess that there are athletes out there looking to break the world record on the lifts.  From what I found, Hossein Rezazadeh holds the current clean & jerk record with this lift of 263.5kg (580lbs).  From reading some of the comments on YouTube, folks like to talk trash about this guy being so big and not really looking like an athlete.  I really don’t care what they say.  Putting 580 pounds overhead, at the freaking Olympics, is impressive to me.  On a side note, Behdad Salimi holds the current WR for his 2011 snatch at 214kg (471lbs).

I could only imagine how amazing it would feel to stand there holding that kind of weight overhead.

There are a lot of dynamics at play here if you ask me, but I really found this inspirational.  Holly Mangold is heading to the 2012 Olympics which is a tremendous achievement in itself.  But before she could do that, she had to get comfortable in her own body, find what she loved to do, and then not let anyone stand in the way as she pursued a dream.