Picking up directly from where I left off yesterday in Why the US Sucks at Olympic Lifting: OL’ing Part 8, I want to start by looking at another place OL’ing this country has a huge problem in terms of getting people (especially our large underclass of potentially amazing power athletes) into it.  Again, I’ll point out exceptions and look at proposed solutions and I’m still leaving out two specific names and one specific group as recent developments in the sport that at least have the potential to change things going forwards.  Back into the fray and today and tomorrow will likely be overlong as I try to wrap up once and for all.

A Lack Of Incentives

It’s hard to say what problem to Ol’ing is THE biggest problem but certainly this is one of the biggies, especially given the nature of sport in America, the nature of who enters our sports and the nature of their drives to do so.  Simply, the total lack of incentives to pursue OL’ing is almost all that it takes to kill the sport completely. Because without incentives on some level, it’s rare (but not unheard of) to see success in sport.

Even with all of the other factors that may have contributed to our success in the 50’s, at least when Hoffman was running things, there were some incentives; athletes were being supported and there were at least some incentives (like magazine coverage or what have you). Athletes weren’t making scads of money but there was some benefit to being involved in the sport (if nothing else they got to travel).

Now there is nothing. No money to be had, no scholarships to be earned and only the top lifters travel (usually on their own dime) overseas to get destroyed by guys with unpronounceable names who warm-up with weights heavier than our guys lift (in an old Ironmind training tape, Strossen points out that Dimas is power snatching a weight heavier than the best US lifter in his class does in competition). And they only get to do that after the pursue the sport on their own for years to reach that level. There is simply no reason to pursue the sport outside of a deeply seated internal drive to do it.

Continue reading Why the US Sucks at Olympic Lifting: Ol’ing Part 9