Greatest American Olympic Weightlifter?


Would I be right in saying that Norbert Schemansky was the greatest American Olympic Weightlifter? In terms of medals at Olympics and other international competitions as well as number of times breaking a world record.


Wait. I forgot about Tommy Kono:

Any other contenders?

Paul Anderson??

http://www.oldtimestrongman.com/images10/paulanderson_wheels.gif

Norbert’s glasses make him #1

[quote]TYPE2B wrote:
Paul Anderson??

http://www.oldtimestrongman.com/images10/paulanderson_wheels.gif
[/quote]

Paul Anderson was extremely strong but he didn’t realise his full potential in Olympic Weightlifting due to turning professional after the 56’ Olympics. Compare his 9 world records to Norbert’s 26 and Tommy’s 27. He’s still up there with the greatest, though.

Wow. Wushu, you really know alot about olympic weightlifting. KUDOS FOR YOU!!

[quote]TYPE2B wrote:
Wow. Wushu, you really know alot about olympic weightlifting. KUDOS FOR YOU!![/quote]

Tone it down a notch, man. All I did was look it up on The Lift Up hall of fame.

[quote]wushu_1984 wrote:
Wait. I forgot about Tommy Kono:

Any other contenders?[/quote]

Tommy Kono is immediately who I thought of when I saw the title of this thread.

He may be the greatest o-lifter of all time. He is certainly in the top 10, IMHO.

[quote]wushu_1984 wrote:
TYPE2B wrote:
Wow. Wushu, you really know alot about olympic weightlifting. KUDOS FOR YOU!!

Tone it down a notch, man. All I did was look it up on The Lift Up hall of fame.[/quote]

No. You deserve it.

[quote]Checkmate wrote:
wushu_1984 wrote:
Wait. I forgot about Tommy Kono:

Any other contenders?

Tommy Kono is immediately who I thought of when I saw the title of this thread.

He may be the greatest o-lifter of all time. He is certainly in the top 10, IMHO.[/quote]

I agree. Tommy Kono was unbelievable and has a great rep as a coach as well. Still I like Norb. I mean he was nearly 40 when he got Bronze in 64’. He beat out lifters in their 20s. Also, Medals in four different olympics is impressive in any olympic sport.

I vote for Norb, because not only did he break records, he went to the Olympics unnoticed, uncompensated, on his own dime. came back unrecognized and never complained about it. He allowed himself to get fired from his job in order to compete. He did it for the sheer love of doing it.

Thank you so much for introducing me to the Lift Up site! Awesome info, and the clips are great. Bookmarked.

[quote]skidmark wrote:
I vote for Norb, because not only did he break records, he went to the Olympics unnoticed, uncompensated, on his own dime. came back unrecognized and never complained about it. He allowed himself to get fired from his job in order to compete. He did it for the sheer love of doing it.[/quote]

Thats what I’m talking about. Norb all the way! The guy is still alive and living in Detroit and still no one knows who he is (at +80 years old no less).


Another person worth a mention from the Lift Up site is John Davis.

The most impressive thing about Davis is that he was self taught.

Here is a pretty good photo slide show of Tommy Kono:

http://weightliftingexchange.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=231&Itemid=108


Heres a pic of the 1953 Senior Weightlifting Team.

Awesome info and pics of old skool lifters!

Koing