First Olympic Weightlifting Record 

At the very first modern Olympics the biggest weight lifted was only 111.5 kilos. At the last Olympics it wouldn’t be enough to win in the lightest weight class of 49 kilos… among women

But back then there were no women in sport. No weight classes. No uniform. No separate stage for weightlifters, barbells were different. Do you think hundred and thirty years ago technique was the same?!

70 years ago, half a way to the modern technique sportsmen snatched and cleaned, in split rather than in squat. It is unlikely that such an exquisite technique was in the very beginning. Having no videos of the first olympic lifts, just photos, we can imagine that it would look somewhat like this.

Most likely the “two hand lift” as it was called transformed later into “press”. And as a press started to resemble clean and jerk it was removed.

Thus a desire to lift more developed a very effective clean and jerk. And how much can you lift without modern olympic technique?