Women's Olympic Weightlifting

Most female weightlifters are not as “in shape” as one might think considering the amount of working out that they do. For the most part, the most powerful weightlifters do not have a typical workout physique that is equated with spending hours in the gym.

Most of these women are obese. Competitors like record breaking Zhou Lulu, Holley Mangold and Sarah Robles are three popular examples of weightlifters who do not fit the feminine physique mold. In fact they are not required to by the sport but by the average American, they do.

But these women like most women in weightlifting do not care how their femininity is measured by participating in the sport whether it be because the sport is male dominated or because they just don’t look very feminine. Should they be wearing heels while they lift 100lbs+ over their heads?

British Olympic weightlifter, Zoe Smith vehemently defended herself against a twitter bully when her femininity was questioned. Not only did she dig a grave for the poor twit where he erased his profile, but she followed up with a blog post where she said,

“You’d think that young women would commend us for doing something different with our lives, and putting 100% effort into it to make something of ourselves.

“But apparently we’re ‘weird’ for not constantly eating crap, binge drinking and wearing the shortest, tightest dresses that the high street has to offer. Sigh.”

Smith’s backlash on the twit received heavy media coverage and support from fellow weightlifters.

In an interview with Huffington Post, Zhou says “Actually I like weightlifting. So when you like something, you don’t think if it’s bad for your body shape or not feminine, I just do what I like.”

Kudos to you ladies! It’s not the 50’s, perhaps society should collectively change its viewpoint on what femininity really means.

With all the hype that surrounded Mangold before the Olympics started, I was really hoping for some truth to the hype. Instead, China dominated once again and Zhou Lulu took home another gold medal for China in the 75+kg match.

Xu lifted 146kg in the snatch, 187 in the clean and jerk for a total of 333, which was 1 more kg than silver medal winner Tatiana Kashirina from the Russian Federation.

Hripsime Khurshudyan from Armenia took home the bronze with a total of 294 kg.

But what happened to the “world’s strongest woman” and the “big girl”. They both failed to round up the top 5. Robles came in at 7th place while Mangold staggered in at 10th with a dismal total lift of 265kg. Mangold blames her injured left wrist, but since she’s still a favorite, there’s hope that she heals in time for the next Olympic games.

Mangold Fail

Wang shows off her first gold medal

The weightlifting competition started off small but strong for China’s Mingjuan Wang who brings home the gold in the 48kg match leaving Japan’s Hiromi Miyaki with the silver and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (PRK) Chun Hwa Ryang trailing behind with the bronze medal.

At 4’11” and weighing only 106lbs, Wang won her first weightlifting gold medal by lifting 91 kg in the snatch and 114 in the clean and jerk for a total of 205, just 8 more kgs than Miyaki who totaled in at 197 kg with 87 kg in the snatch and 110 in the clean and jerk. Ryang only trailed by 5 kgs with 80kg in the snatch and 112 in the clean and jerk.

Chia’s Li Xueying 58 kg weightlifter also brought home the gold for the women’s team. The men’s team is also leading with the most gold medals in weightlifting.

Expect yelps and facial expressions to get crazier as the classes get higher and the weight gets heavier in the upcoming weeks. The US team did not compete in this class.

Two of the team members are competing in the 75+kg competition.

Let’s start with the basics so that we can understand what we are seeing when we watch an Olympic weightlifting match and what the announcer is saying while reporting:

Format- according to official Olympic guidelines:

There are seven weight categories within the women’s competition and within each category: the competitors can attempt to lift up to more than three times their body weight

–          48 kg (106 lb)

–          53 kg (117 lb)

–          58 kg (128 lb)

–          63 kg (139 lb)

–          69 kg (152 lb)

–          75 kg (165 lb)

–          75 + kg (165+ lbs)

Format Rules- according to Olympic Guidelines

There are three allowed  attempts at the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk

An athlete’s best lift in each attempt is combined to determine the overall result

If an athlete fails to make a valid lift with any of their three attempts in the snatch, they are eliminated.

When there is a tie in lift weight: the athlete with the lower body weight is declared the winner

However, if two athletes lift the same total weight and have the same body weight, the winner is the athlete who lifted the total weight first.

Moves-

There are two types of “lifts”, the first is the “snatch” where the barbell  is lifted from the floor in a squatting position to above the head in a single swift body movements. The “clean and jerk” is where the bar is first brought up to the shoulders before being jerked over the head with the elbows facing outward.

Dictionary- according to the Olympic Guidelines

No lift – a lift that is judged to be unsuccessful by at least two of the three referees
Press out – “an illegal move where the lifter bends the arms while holding the bar overhead, then presses them out to straighten them
Squat – to drop while bending the legs, with the feet shoulder width a part and knees coming right above the toes so that the body is properly aligned

Qualified: Sarah Robles and Holley Mangold

Weightlifting has always been a male dominated sport. It started in the 1800’s and has lasted for centuries and has increasingly become popular through World Championship competitions. However, women’s Olympic weightlifting had only been implemented at the Olympic Games in 2000 in Sydney Australia, where Tara Nott took home the Gold for the USA Women’s Olympic Weightlifting team.

According to livestrong.com, the very first known female weightlifter was Ivy Russell from England, who started her career as a weightlifter at the age of 14 in 1921. Russell was the first woman to win a weightlifting contest in the 1930’s. It was not until the 1960’s and on that weightlifting competition championships and bodybuilding started to become popular because of athletes like Arnold Schwarzenegger and the popular rise of bodybuilding championships in California. Since then female athletes started to join the championship ranks; Karyn Marshall who competed internationally in (Jakarta, Manchester and Sarajevo) and Judy Glenney who competed in the Women’s National Championships, the Master’s National Championships and the World Master’s championships.

Both women were popular competitors in the early 1980’s and won several championship titles. The rise in popularity among women weightlifters eventually led to the Olympics introducing weightlifting as a competition in 2000. The men’s Olympic Weightlifting has been in place since the late 1800’s.

The qualifications to be an Olympic weightlifting competitor are pretty tough to meet. Countries are able to enter up to 10 athletes into the qualification round split between men and women. There are also individual qualification spots for athletes ranked in the top 15^th places within each body weight category.

There are seven different body weight categories in the Olympic games;

–          48 kg (106 lb)

–          53 kg (117 lb)

–          58 kg (128 lb)

–          63 kg (139 lb)

–          69 kg (152 lb)

–          75 kg (165 lb)

–          75 + kg; which the two USA women’s team members are competing in

Olympic Weightlifting is judged by two succinct moves; the “snatch” and “clean and jerk.” According to Olympic format rules; “each lifter is allowed three attempts at the Snatch and three attempts at the Clean and Jerk and their best lift in each is combined to determine their overall result. If an athlete fails to make a valid lift with any of their three attempts in the snatch, they are eliminated. When a tie occurs, the athlete with the lower bodyweight is declared the winner. If two athletes lift the same total weight and have the same bodyweight, the winner is the athlete who lifted the total weight first.”

For the US women’s team, the athletes that will be competing in the 2012 games are Sarah Robles from San Jacinto California who was named “America’s strongest woman” and Holley Mangold, from Dayton Ohio who is popular from her appearance on MTV’s True Life: I’m the big girl, TV documentary and also because she is the younger sister of Jets center Nick Mangold. Both women are competing in the 75+ weight class.

Us lazy, nonathletic couch potatoes can finally be happy, athletes suffer from health problems too and their health problems might just be worse.

Aside from the rigid diet that overloads their system with high levels of protein that can hurt the liver, the heart is effected by the levels of stress, the release of high levels of electrolytes without replenishment, low potassium levels, and an imbalance of sugars can lead to diabetes and heart failure, not to mention the stress and strain put on joints and muscles.

One of the main reasons an athlete can suffer from physical ailments is by having poor form when lifting heavy weight and some injuries take time to become noticeable, and by then the damage has been done. But there is no time to heal, a true athlete must push through the pain or use alternate muscles to move the stress to another point of their body, where eventually that pinpointed pressure will result in another injury.

In some more gruesome cases, when an athletes form is really off, the weightlifter can lose balance and it may cost them a ligament.

Panida Khamsrri of Thailand drops the weights with an injured elbow in Women’s 48KG

Yoga + Cross-fit Training

Since yoga has hit the workout scene, yoga mats, bags and all types of yoga gear have been flying off the shelves especially among women consumers/gym rats. But with the new craze of cross-fit and eager women who flock to sign up, yoga has taken a back seat for a bit.

Cross-fit is not your average workout fad, but since it has become more accessible and marketable because of the Reebok cross-fit games and the growing popularity of women’s Olympic weightlifting; some cross-fit gyms have been accommodating women by creating classes just for them.

But what does that mean for yoga? Are we not going to see yoga mats tied to the backs of gym rats anymore? Not necessarily. Its more than likely that once newbie cross-fitters start to truly understand the benefits of adding yoga to their workout, yoga will stick around longer and even grow stronger because of the benefits that add to cross-fit training.

For instance, a typical cross-fit work out does not contain a long period of stretches; cross-fitters just jump right into a “warm-up” that is normally the average person’s workout, ie; jump-roping at high intensity for 15 minutes. So stretching is not necessarily a fundamental part of the work-out.

However, yoga offers 90 minutes of stretching, muscle relaxation and strengthening and  breathing techniques to improve blood circulation. Yoga thus improving cross-fit workouts that may put stress on muscles that need the extra care which may probably prove that it will never die and has lived beyond its “fad” years.

North Korea’s Jong Sim Rim competes on the women’s 69Kg

If I was a weightlifter, an Olympic weightlifter at that; a female olympic weightlifter who is being watched by millions of people around the world while I squat and try to lift 300 lbs over my head, I would want to look cute, not just for myself or the few million male admirers but for endorsement deals as well because you know that female athletes are judged based on their looks more than their male counterparts.

Holley Mangold’s “struggle face”

I would also be self-conscious about the faces that I make. But that is certainly not the case for these courageous women who are not interested in how they look; they are strictly focused on lifting. From the looks of these shots, there may not be many mainstream endorsement deal offers for these ladies. It’s unfortunate.

Luisa Peters holding her breath

Armenia’s Meline Daluzyan competes on the women’s 69Kg.

Athletes don’t go on diets; they live by rituals that cater to their particular sport. One main ritual crucial to an athlete’s performance is their diet; however the eating habits of an athlete is not a “diet” per say, but a lifestyle choice they rigidly stick by.

Protein shakes, water, Metamucil. Yes I said Metamucil for fiber enhancing purposes, chicken, complex carbs, and typically foods containing high protein are a part of the weightlifting diet with 2000 calorie requirement for each day.

According to Livestrong.com, female weightlifters consume an average of 2,000 to 3,000 calories or more depending on their lifting stats.

So the more an athlete lifts, the more they need to consume to prevent the loss of muscle mass, but don’t be fooled, although the eating habits are rigid most female weightlifters do not have a lean muscle mass build because of the high calories that are consumed to feed muscle growth and lack of testosterone to assist in their bodies in fat burning like men do, so they’re more likely to put on weight when weightlifting or not lose much weight if they are already over weight.

Once a sport has hit the popularity mark among mainstream media, there is bound to be a wave of businesses that open up and or company partnerships that emerge to specifically cater to the new found target market. Whether it’s a movie that makes a sport more popular, such as Million Dollar Baby that inspired every 30 something year old woman trying to take boxing lessons or an athlete’s performance such as Michael Phelps’ gold medal record, there will be average Joes rushing to their nearby sports center to sign up for the next swim class. Even the dullest sports imaginable have become popular through mainstream hype like archery which has become popular because of the move The Hunger Games. So how does Olympic weightlifting allow mainstream markets to cash in?

Olympic weightlifting has trickled down onto gym rats in variations of intensity levels. For the serious athletes such as body builders, the training regimen, eat habits and workouts fall within a similar range of intensity. Body builders don’t just train because they think a type of sport is cool or fun, it is a way of life, and therefore the weightlifting regimen is a lifetime commitment for most.

For the workout junkie looking for the next high, the snatch and jerk and clean have become well known moves incorporated into the “CrossFit” workout. Cross-fit is an intense workout that spurned into a sport which some non-believers may say is the new “fad” workout. Cross-fit is a high intensity training workout that incorporates heart rate jacking cardio levels with Olympic style weightlifting in a timed segment with competitive incremental weight increases in every set.

The popularity of Olympic weightlifting has grown over the years with CrossFit gyms opening all over the country. The CrossFit gym was created back in 2000 and since then over 3400 affiliated gyms has been opened (according to Hartford Magazine’s article titled “The CrossFit Craze.”) where members are charged from $150 to $275 per month with the occasional Groupon or Living social deal for $50, which introduces the average Joe to the intense competitive workout routines of weightlifting athlete. The sky-high membership rates do give off the impression to a newbie that the gym may be well-scented and accommodating, when in fact it is not. Most CrossFit locations are in warehouses, garages or yards with basic needs for workouts, weights, chin-up bars, mats and jump ropes; so be prepared to bring your own water and sweat.

In NYC alone, there are at least 100 CrossFit locations with classes that cater to all types of crowds; athletes, students, military professionals all of which include a strong percentage of female participants. Weightlifting has become commercialized through CrossFit so much that throughout the years, in the male dominated sport, there has been a sharp increase in female participants and businesses have profited from the commercialization which is most noticeable in the number of female participants in the most recent CrossFit games. Although the CrossFit industry is fairly new in its budding, the analysis of overall profits is yet to be determined but with the increase in popularity based off of the Olympics and Reebok CrossFit games; weightlifting may be able to ride a long steady wave.