So on Friday I finally started moving toward a point and actually looked at how the US has done in the sport of Olympic lifting (at least at the Olympic level) in Why the US Sucks at Olympic Lifting: OL’ing Part 5. Somewhat surprisingly, our total medal count actually isn’t that bad, a solid third place although within shooting distance of 2nd and 4th place (Russia is overwhelmingly dominant in 1st).

The big issue, however was one of timing with roughly 98% of our medals being won in this very narrow time frame between 1948 and 1960 and almost nothing since then (we have a handful of medals literally along with the two women’s medals in 2000). I finish by asking the question of what was going on during that time frame that allowed us to be so dominant along with wondering what in the hell happened.

Today I want to look at what might have been going on during that time period, in terms of the same factors that I’ve looked at in other parts of this series (and hopefully I won’t be too wordy about it) that led to the US’s dominance. Basically to see if anything about that time had similarities or differences to what I’ve babbled about for what seems like the last year and a half.

Sociocultural Rhetoric

As I mentioned previously, weight training was an ‘offshoot’ if you will of a developing physical culture movement of the late 19th and early 20th century. This included a focus on overall health, good living and a host of other factors including overall athleticism. It was a time of development, experimentation and there was a distinct lack of specialization among the followers of that concept.

And weightlifting, which was still a relatively recent activity, at least in any formal sense, was part of that. Mind you, it was part and parcel of it but things like gymnastics, hand balancing, muscle control and many other things were done as part of the overall movement.

Continue reading Why the US Sucks at Olympic Lifting: OL’ing Part 6