A short history of Olympic lifting

The ancient Olympics were held from 776 BC to AD 393. That's 1,169 years! Weightlifters, howerver, had to wait till 1896 for the modern Olympics. During the early days of weightlifting, way back in the late 19th century, events such as shot putting, tug-of-war and exercises with barbells and dumbbells were all called "weightlifting." The throwing events went to track and field. The barbell and dumbbell folks had to form their own group. Pioneers of weightlifting attempted several times to organize an international federation, even trying once to combine it with wrestling. In 1905 the International Weightlifting Federation was formed. However, things didn't settle down for a few more years. By 1920, as many as 33 different lifts had been tried out as contest lifts. There is some debate on exactly which lifts these were. A lot of the lifts that were tried were overhead lifts. Spotters used to be used in Olympic lifting. They were called "catchers." The next year, 1921, the International Olympic Committee dictated to the IWF to get rid of the catchers. Then, by 1924 there were five lifts lifts used in all contests. They were the One-Hand Snatch, the One-Hand Clean & Jerk with the opposite hand, the Two-Hands Clean & Press, Two-Hands Snatch, and the Two-Hands Clean & Jerk. However, the one handed lifts were dropped after the 1924 Olympics. That left the Olympic Three; the Press, the Snatch and the Clean & Jerk. Beginning January 1, 1973, the Clean & Press was eliminated from the Olympic program, leaving us with just two lifts. For the 2000 Olympics, the IOC limited the total number of athletes to 10,000. Weightlifting was limited to 250. That was also the first time women would compete in weightlifting. So they juggled the weight classes to fit everyone in. The Men have eight classes and the Women have seven. For the first time, there is more than one type of barbell used in competition. The women's bar is 15 kilograms and the men's is 20 kilos.