Tonight we went to the EXCEL in London to watch the weightlifting. Going into this I’d been told it was really fun to watch live, I figured it just a lot of grunting and guys lifting poles with metal disks on each end.

So I went and was prepared to be a little cynical about the whole thing, but I’ve matured to the point  that I don’t snigger at the term “clean and jerk”. I was blown away by this. I see the tactics, how weights lifted are chosen, the skill of balancing close to three times your own bodyweight above your head is quite incredible. Add the noise of partisan crowd, world records being broken and the flowing testosterone and it makes for quite an event.

Russian Alexander Ivanov afrer breaking a world record and moving into first place, a record that stood until…
…Ilya Ilyin stepped up a few minutes later, reset the record and defended the gold he won in Beijing.

2 Comments

  • I was there for the weightlifting a couple of nights ago and it really is much more then guys “lifting disks of metal”. Cool photos.

  • Great pictures, seems you are enjoying the atmosphere and events around it. I will go one year to an Olympics, it does look like so much fun.

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