Weightlifting at the 1904 Olympics

Weightlifting at the 1904 Olympics

By Conor Heffernan for https://physicalculturestudy.com/

It was the first time that the Olympic Games were held outside of Europe and the first time they were held in an English-speaking country. It was heralded as a monumental step in the internationalisation of the Olympic spirit and it was prompted as such.

Unfortunately, the reality of the 1904 St. Louis Olympics proved to be anything but. Owing both to the Russo-Japanese War and the sheer difficulty in sending athletes to the United States from Europe, the 1904 Games were largely bereft of elite athletes. Nevertheless, perhaps owing to the determined attitude of the organisers, the Games continued regardless.

Whether this was a blessing or a curse for the sport of weightlifting is up to the reader to decide.

Today’s post examines the re-emergence of weightlifting at the 1904 Olympic Games. The sport had been part of the inaugural games in Athens in 1896 but had failed to appear at the Paris showing four years later. As a sport still in its infancy, weightlifting depended on international showings to improve its popularity. While the first international weightlifting competition was held in London in 1891, the Olympic games five years later had seen significantly more media interest in the event.

Weightlifting in many ways needed genuine Olympic interest to attract more to the sport.

Setting the Boundaries

Given that the 1896 games were somewhat shrouded in controversy about which lifts were to performed and in what manner, you would be forgiven for thinking that the 1906 iteration would have resolved this issue. This was not the case. Somewhat bizarrely the decision was taken to include two events. An all-round dumbbell lift and a two-hand lift.

All-Round Dumbbell Lifts

Rather than a single lift such as the snatch or clean and jerk, the all round dumbbell contest demanded that competitors compete a series of exercises with heavy dumbbells to determine the best overall athlete. Based on the idea that lifters should be functionally strong in all senses, the contest was split between two days, with 5 lifts to be performed on each day.

On the first day the following lifts were examined:

  • Holding out one dumbbell in each hand at arm’s length, the bells to be started with the arms perpendicular above the head an dropped down from there to straight out at arm’s length from the shoulder horizontally
  • Curling one dumbbell in one hand
  • Tossing one dumbbell in one hand from the ground to arm’s length above the shoulders in one motion without stopping at the shoulder.
  • Jerking up one dumbbell with one hand from the shoulder to arm’s length above the shoulder
  • Pushing up slowly one dumbbell in each hand from the shoulder to arm’s length above the shoulder.

Day two would see the competitors face the following lifts:

  • Curling one dumbbell in each hand at the same time
  • Tossing up one dumbbell from the ground to the shoulder with one hand
  • Pushing up slowly one dumbbell with one hand from the shoulder to arm’s length above the shoulder
  • Jerking up one dumbbell in each hand from the shoulder to arm’s length above the shoulder
  • A free style section composed entirely of original feats at the option of the contestant.

For the first nine lifts, competitors were awarded 5 points, 3 points and 1 point if they came first, second or third. The final event was up to the judges’ discretion with the caveat that no more than 25 points could be divided between 3 competitors. The idea that bicep curling was once an Olympic event will undoubtedly give hope to all those ‘suns out, guns out’ trainees in the weights room.

Thankfully the other component of the competition, the two-handed lift, was much simpler to understand.

The Two-Handed Lift

Similar to the 1896 games, the two hand lift was comparable to the modern day clean and jerk, although admittedly with a less smoother technique. Competitors would attempt to outlift one another and points would be judged accordingly.

Lifters were given three attempts to hit their target weights, with the top three athletes given three addition attempts to best their previous lifts.  For the full article go to Weightlifting at the 1904 Olyimpics.

Author: By Conor Heffernan Completed: yes Created: Thu Jun 15 18:18:57 UTC 2023 | Last Updated: Sat Dec 02 16:06:11 UTC 2023