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IWF120y/72 – 2025: Knowing one of the basic lifts – Clean & Jerk

Together with the Snatch, the Clean & Jerk is one of the two basic lifts in Olympic weightlifting. Considered in the early days a rudimentary test of strength, it became a highly technical movement from the moment coaches and athletes began to understand the importance of biomechanics and training methods, leading to significant improvements in performance. Requiring precision, strength, and coordination, it implies explosive power, flexibility, and technique. Unlike the Snatch, the main characteristic of the Clean & Jerk is that the lift is executed in two consecutive movements (thus also allowing for heavier weights): the 'clean' phase, where the barbell is lifted to the shoulders (photo), and the 'jerk' part where it is propelled overhead. According to the 2025 IWF Technical Competition Rules and Regulations, the correct ‘clean’ must be as follows: “The barbell is gripped, palm downward and pulled in a single movement from the platform to the shoulders, while either splitting or bending the legs. During this continuous movement upward the barbell should remain close to the body and the barbell may slide along the thighs. The barbell must not touch the chest before it stops at the final position either on the clavicles, chest, or on fully bent arms. The athlete’s feet must return to the same line and the legs must be fully extended before starting the Jerk. Before the Jerk, the athlete may adjust the position of the barbell for the following reasons: a) to withdraw or “unhook” the thumbs b) if breathing is impeded c) if the barbell causes pain d) to change the width of the grip”. As for the ‘Jerk’, the rules stipulate that “the athlete bends and dynamically extends the legs and arms simultaneously to move the barbell upward in one motion to the full extent of the arms, while either splitting or bending the legs. The athlete returns his / her feet to the same line parallel to the plane of the trunk and the barbell with his / her arms and legs fully

IWF120y/71 – 1964: Waldemar Baszanowski, a reference in Polish weightlifting

Before arriving in Tokyo, for his second Olympic participation in 1964, Waldemar Baszanowski was already a distinguished athlete in Poland. After winning the 1961 world title in Vienna (AUT) and getting two additional silver medals in 1962 (Budapest, HUN) and 1963 (Stockholm, SWE), he was chosen as his nation’s flagbearer in the Opening Ceremony of the Games in the Japanese capital. Some days later, he would definitively enter into the weightlifting Pantheon, clinching his first Olympic victory in the 67.5kg category (132.5-135-165-432.5). Known for his impeccable style and for being one of the last lifters to use the “split clean”, the Polish ace revalidated his title four years later in Mexico City, this time lifting a total of 437.5. In 1972, he competed in his fourth Games (he had been fifth in 1960, in Rome), but couldn’t reach the podium in Munich, finishing fourth. At the World Championships, and besides the above-mentioned medals, he got two additional titles (1965 and 1969) and was second in 1966, 1970, and 1971. He is still today the only Polish lifter with two Olympic titles and the most prolific (10 medals) athlete in the history of the IWF World Championships! Throughout his amazing career, he also set 24 World Records. Poland has a solid tradition in weightlifting, with a total of 34 medals at the Games (six gold, six silver, and 22 bronze)! Off the platform, Baszanowski’s life was marked by a tragic car accident (in which he was the driver) in 1969, where his wife tragically died, but their six-year-old son survived. Upon his retirement, he became a successful coach and administrator, being elected in 1999 as President of the European Weightlifting Federation. In 2007, tragedy struck again: after falling from a tree in his garden, Baszanowski was paralysed from the neck down. In April 2011, he passed away in Warsaw, at the age of

IWF120y/70 – 2024: Solfrid Koanda (NOR) is the last one to know she won gold

It is certainly one of the funniest and most remembered images of the weightlifting competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games: in the women’s 81kg, Solfrid Koanda wins the gold for Norway, but always in her “bubble” and “protected” by her coaches regarding the progress of the event, she is finally informed that she was Olympic champion after the world and spectators on site had already understood the victory was hers. And what a triumph it was: after lifting 121kg in Snatch, she performs 154kg in the Clean & Jerk, for a total of 275kg. Her last failed C&J of 162kg was not even necessary to ensure the gold… With this success, Koanda, born in 1998, became the first female Norwegian lifter to win (and medal) at the Olympics, after a solitary achievement by her compatriot Leif Jenssen in Munich 1972 (gold in the men’s 82.5kg category). Besides the sportive performance, it was also a sweet revenge for a difficult life for Koanda, born to a Finnish mother and Ivorian father, but put into foster care during her teenage years. She starts weightlifting only in 2020, after practicing CrossFit, but very soon obtains excellent results at the international level. In 2021, she earns bronze at the IWF Worlds, before getting the gold a year later. Also with four European titles, the Olympic achievement definitively consecrates Koanda as a star in the world of weightlifting. A full-professional athlete since the end of 2022, she earned her life before as an electrician (she has a degree in

IWF120y/69 – 1968: Serge Reding earns last Olympic medal for Belgium

1920 is an important date, both for the Olympic Movement and for the IWF. After the horror of World War I (leading to the cancellation of the 1916 edition), the Games were staged in Antwerp. Belgium, with the participation of 29 nations (only one more than in 1912). To symbolise the need for peace and unity around the world, it was the first time the Olympic Oath was heard and the Olympic Flag displayed. In that year, our organisation also underwent major changes, almost like a re-birth since its foundation in 1905, concentrating its efforts on the sole sport of weightlifting. As the host nation of the Games, Belgium (affiliated to the IWF since 1912) sent a strong contingent of athletes to Antwerp. Three of them won medals in weightlifting – Frans De Haes clinched gold (he remains the only Belgian Olympic champion in history) in the 60kg category, while Louis Williquet and Georges Rooms got respectively the silver and the bronze in the 67.5kg. The weightlifting community in Belgium had to wait 48 years to witness another (the last until present days) achievement at Olympic level: in 1968, in Mexico City, Serge Reding (photo) won the silver in the +90kg category, lifting 195-147.5-212.5-555. Until his sudden death at the age of 33 in 1975, Reding won three additional silver medals at the World Championships – 1969, 1970, and 1974. Moreover, he established six World Records throughout his career, becoming the most prolific lifter in Belgian

IWF120y/68 – 2004: Halil Mutlu (TUR) enters a very ‘exclusive’ club

After winning his third consecutive gold medal at the Games, Halil Mutlu (TUR) entered in 2004 in the very “exclusive” club of the lifters with three Olympic titles. Born in July 1973 in Bulgaria, he starts to be noticed at the beginning of the 1990s, when he won his first medals at the European level: bronze in 1991 and 1992. At 19, he takes part in his first Games, in Barcelona, finishing fifth in his category (52kg). The following years, his domination is overwhelming and will materialise in three Olympic victories (Atlanta 1996: 132.5-155-287.5; Sydney 2000: 137.5-167.5-305; Athens 2004: 135-160-295) and five titles at the IWF World Championships (1994, 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2003). Competing in four different bodyweight categories throughout his career (52kg, 54kg, 56kg, and 62kg), Mutlu established 21 World Records (10 in Snatch, six in Clean & Jerk, and five in Total). His personal bests were 138.5 in Snatch, 168 in C&J, and 305 in Total. Having retired in 2008, the Turkish “Dynamo” (the nickname by which he was known) also collected nine gold medals at the European Championships and was one of the few athletes in history to have lifted the equivalent of three times his own body weight. Mutlu was the fourth weightlifter to have earned three gold medals at the Olympics, after his compatriot Naim Suleymanoglu (1988-1996), Pyrros Dimas (GRE, 1992-2000), and Kakhi Kakhiashvili (GEO/GRE,

IWF120y/67 – 1948: Lifters from the five continents are represented at the Olympics

The presence of weightlifting at the Games reflects the evolution of the sport in the five continents, the status of our International Federation in the Olympic Movement, and is even determined by the location of the biggest sports event on the planet. It all started modestly, in the first edition of Games, in Athens 1896: seven lifters from five nations. In 1904, in St. Louis (USA), weightlifting had its poorest Olympic presence: only five athletes from two countries (the host nation, plus Greece). Things became more interesting from the 1924 edition onwards: in Paris, our Sport is represented for the first time with more than 100 athletes – 107 (only men at the time). The number of nations remains on the other hand low, with no more than 16 countries. The end of World War II meant a turning point for weightlifting, as the London 1948 Games (photo from a weightlifting podium ceremony), attended by 120 lifters, will have representation from the five continents, a first – Australia and New Zealand began their weightlifting Olympic road in the British capital. Oceania was finally present at the Games! Until 1996, the last edition only attended by men, the participation steadily improved (the exception being Melbourne 1956, much due to the geographical location of the event), with the highest number being Barcelona 1992, with 245 male lifters, from 69 countries. From Sydney 2000, women are also part of the competition, and including the last edition of the Games, in 2024 in Paris, the most significant overall presence in the Olympics, was in Rio 2016, with 260 lifters – 156 men and 104