A Shout-Out To All The Oly-Lifters

Hey all,

So i’m just wondering: who on T-Nation actively trains or competes in Olympic Lifting?

In my country (Australia), oly-lifting has about the same national profile as curling (the winter sport, not the bicep exercise). This seems to be the case with other “western” countries such as the USA, Canada and the UK. So i’m also curious to know why/how you first got involved with the sport.

Suppose i better go first:

I’ve been interested in olympic lifting since i first saw the infamous “Pyrros Dimas Training Video” about two years ago. I’d always had a passion for strength and fitness, but that video was (and still is) one of the most impressive things i’d ever seen.

As it turns out, a PT at my local gym just happened to be the state champion in his weight class, so i took a few sessions with him to learn the basics. He also reffered me to a local club in the area but for some reason i never really got around to calling them.

Fast-forward to last year’s Beijing Olympics. I’m watching the weightlifters go at it and thinking “i need to be doing this”, so i made a call to that local club. I’ve been training exclusively in oly-lifting since September last year, competed in my second competition 4-weeks ago, with a third comming up in June. Loveing every minute of it.

Your turn…

Met a 73 year old really energetic guy at the gym I was training at, he’d been lifting for 50 years. He showed me the basic technique and told me about a club in my town.

I joined the club and have been training there for about 4 months. Most of that time has been spent fixing my technique on everything. Just imagining my 1RM deadlift one day becoming my 1RM snatch is so amazing to me. I’m competing for the first time (rather grudgingly since I’m so weak still) in a month.

Competitive rowing all through highschool. Rowing coach always told me to do a strength sport. Graduated. Realized my height 5’6, posed a disadvantage in that sport. Continued to lift (bodybuilding type) Went to Rowing team reunion, coach asked me if I was competing in a strength sport, I said no, he was not impressed. That gave me a kick in the butt. I e-mailed the Canada’s national weightlifting federation, to get a referral to the provincial federation, to get a referral to local clubs (Yea, its really hard in North America). Found a club about 40 minutes away. Joined. I lift now.

Hey LiftSmart, are you talking about Seafest 2009? My club is the host club. If so, what weightclass? I’ll be sure to watch your lifts and say hi.

What’s up man. Always good for olympic lifting to attract others. Feel free to check out my lifting vids on: http://www.youtube.com/user/Vatos75

only 1 competition under my belt so far, but i’m focusing my training more on olympic stuff starting this week more than ever before

LiftSmart

You gonna be at Seafest? My club is the host club. If so what weightclass are you in. I’ll be sure to be there to cheer you on and say hi.

Isn’t curling popular in Canada?

yes, way more popular than olympic lifting, atleast in my area

Hahah oh yeah i forgot curling is actually popular in Canada.

Seems like most of the lifters i know got into weightlifting through some another sport like football, powerlifting, throwing etc.

Btw Kroll, what weight class are you in?

[quote]brian.m wrote:
yes, way more popular than olympic lifting, atleast in my area[/quote]

both are equally unpopular on the west coast.

I started last September because our school started a club and one of the doctoral students is a weightlifting coach. I competed in my first meet in February at 77kg. I plan on competing again on June 20th at 77kg.

[quote]Invictica wrote:
brian.m wrote:
yes, way more popular than olympic lifting, atleast in my area

both are equally unpopular on the west coast.[/quote]

haha well curling isnt more popular than olympic lifting in a cool factor…its just that i have yet to know anyone who has (or plans on) competed in olympic lifting, while i know people a couple people who curl competitively, even if they take shit for it

OP have you checked the OL log in the Journals Forum?

[quote]brian.m wrote:
Invictica wrote:
brian.m wrote:
yes, way more popular than olympic lifting, atleast in my area

both are equally unpopular on the west coast.

haha well curling isnt more popular than olympic lifting in a cool factor…its just that i have yet to know anyone who has (or plans on) competed in olympic lifting, while i know people a couple people who curl competitively, even if they take shit for it[/quote]

Haha, to be fair, before I found my club, I knew nobody who O-lifted and lived 5 minutes away from a fully equipped curling rink.

Hey, I was disputing this with a friend. Is Lacrosse or Hockey our official national sport?

[quote]Invictica wrote:
brian.m wrote:
Invictica wrote:
brian.m wrote:
yes, way more popular than olympic lifting, atleast in my area

both are equally unpopular on the west coast.

haha well curling isnt more popular than olympic lifting in a cool factor…its just that i have yet to know anyone who has (or plans on) competed in olympic lifting, while i know people a couple people who curl competitively, even if they take shit for it

Haha, to be fair, before I found my club, I knew nobody who O-lifted and lived 5 minutes away from a fully equipped curling rink.

Hey, I was disputing this with a friend. Is Lacrosse or Hockey our official national sport?[/quote]

It used to be just lacrosse but now I believe it’s hockey and lacrosse

[quote]dfreezy wrote:
OP have you checked the OL log in the Journals Forum?

Just checked it out. Damn thats awesome! Can’t believe i’d never found it before

[quote]Ov3rman wrote:
Btw Kroll, what weight class are you in?[/quote]

85kg class.

[quote]Invictica wrote:
brian.m wrote:
Invictica wrote:
brian.m wrote:
yes, way more popular than olympic lifting, atleast in my area

both are equally unpopular on the west coast.

haha well curling isnt more popular than olympic lifting in a cool factor…its just that i have yet to know anyone who has (or plans on) competed in olympic lifting, while i know people a couple people who curl competitively, even if they take shit for it

Haha, to be fair, before I found my club, I knew nobody who O-lifted and lived 5 minutes away from a fully equipped curling rink.

Hey, I was disputing this with a friend. Is Lacrosse or Hockey our official national sport?[/quote]

i beleive officially it probably is lacrosse…unofficially i would say hockey haha (but i’m not 100% on that for reals)

[quote]brian.m wrote:
Invictica wrote:
brian.m wrote:
Invictica wrote:
brian.m wrote:
yes, way more popular than olympic lifting, atleast in my area

both are equally unpopular on the west coast.

haha well curling isnt more popular than olympic lifting in a cool factor…its just that i have yet to know anyone who has (or plans on) competed in olympic lifting, while i know people a couple people who curl competitively, even if they take shit for it

Haha, to be fair, before I found my club, I knew nobody who O-lifted and lived 5 minutes away from a fully equipped curling rink.

Hey, I was disputing this with a friend. Is Lacrosse or Hockey our official national sport?

i beleive officially it probably is lacrosse…unofficially i would say hockey haha (but i’m not 100% on that for reals)[/quote]

So. Vancouver Canucks.

Overman, where in Aus are you? I train at Hawthorne Weightlifting Club, Victoria.
I was first selected to train for an interstate Athletics thing, switching over from soccer.

That’s when I started going to gym, to improve my sprints and jumps. After a while I got sick of running and was more interested in pure strength, so I started looking at powerlifting of my own accord. After doing SS, and a few other things, I decided to compete.

Just a funny turn of luck that sent me to Weightlifting, watching the commonwealth games in Melbourne, rather than Powerlifting. I guess I am thinking that I can do Powerlifting in my later years after I have spent myself doing Oly. I love both, I just cant do them both at the same time.