Posts about weightlifting history
In my last article, I wrote about the first World’s Strongest Man contest in 1977. Olympic weightlifter Bruce Wilhelm easily won the competition and returned in 1978 to defend his title. The total number of competitors increased from eight in 1977 to ten in 1978, but Wilhelm was the only one returning from the previous … Read more
Mostly everyone, whether a fan or not, has seen some footage of the World’s Strongest Man competition. It’s truly mind-boggling how powerful these competitors are. But many people don’t know that the first competition goes back to 1977, which bears little resemblance to today’s organized and well-planned event. The 1977 competition had only eight contestants, … Read more
In 1975, the cover of Sports Illustrated identified Soviet weightlifter Vasily Alekseyev as “The World’s Strongest Man.” Few could contradict that claim. His achievements spoke for themselves. At the time, Alekseyev was preparing to win his sixth consecutive World Superheavyweight Championship. What Made Alekseyev So Powerful? When he was just 11 years old, Vasily was put to … Read more
The Bulgarian Weightlifting team’s success began with the hiring of Ivan Abadjiev as head coach of the National team. Abadjiev had been an assistant coach for many years but, in 1959, he got into trouble with government authorities by organizing a National Teenage Weightlifting Championship. The thinking at that time was that those under the … Read more
I wrote this article about 1976 Olympic silver medalist weightlifter Lee James about three years ago and updated it on Dec.22, 2020. Lee recently died in a tragic accident on Feb. 11, 2023, at age 69. I didn’t know Lee well but met him in 1985 at a weightlifting clinic in York, Pa. He was … Read more