Max asked Abadjiev what it would take for him to not be a "piece of shit" 94kg lifter. Abadjiev said, "245kg clean and jerk."

"With no doping control right?"

"I don't care if you eat shit." [1]

=== THE SPORT ===

Every Olympic sport, in some way or another, requires great strength, whether it be static or dynamic, bounding or dextrous, physical or mental. But there is only one "strength sport" contested at the Olympic Games: the classic Olympic biathlon, offically called "weightlifting."

Weightlifting has been held since the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, but the sport reached its current form in 1972. Barring the occasional procedural change, the sport has remained in elegant simplicity since then. The athlete has three attempts each in the "snatch," where the barbell is lifted overhead in one movement, and the "clean and jerk," where the barbell is lifted first to the shoulders, then overhead.

Besides being the only strength sport at the Olympics, weightlifting has some other peculiarities. It is likely the only sport where the competition movement can be used by itself to train for competition. Its athletes can often out-compete specialists in other sports. Weightlifters have been shown to run the 25m faster than 100m sprinters, light-heavyweight Yurik Vardanyan had a standing broad jump of 12'3", Viktor Sots had the highest force plate output of any athlete in the almighty Soviet Union, and videos abound of 5'6" Shi Zhiyong leaping to grab a basketball rim [2].

=== THE PINNACLE ===

The 1988 Olympics in Seoul, 16 years after the inception of the biathlon, looked to be the most exciting competition yet. The Soviets, masters of sport science, had reworked their winning triathlon training for the biathlon, retaining a focus on upper body development, variation, and uniform lifting style.

But recently, the Soviets had been upset by the much smaller nation of Bulgaria, led by the Pope of weightlifting, Ivan Abadjiev. The Bulgarians first bested the Soviets in the 1985 World Championships and had not slowed down. They made the most of their unique program of training that minimized reps outside of the maximum and almost exclusively used the snatch, clean and jerk, and front squat. The average American lifted between 5 and 6 tons a day. The average Bulgarian lifted between 50 and 60.

Rara avis among rarae aves was the prodigy Turkish featherweight Naim Suleymanoglu. Formed under Abadjiev's tutelage, he fled communist Bulgaria to escape ethnic persecution. He continued to train, Bulgarian-style, daily until he had to be dragged to his bed.

Marinov, the diminutive Bulgarian, opened the '88 Olympics by snagging the flyweight gold, setting a world record and leading the East Asians by a comfortable 10kg. The Bulgarian Grablev edged out the Armenian-Soviet Mirzoyan for bantamweight gold. In the featherweight division Naim Suleymanoglu, the Pocket Hercules, delivered the most dominant performance of all time, clean and jerking 10kg over 3 times his own bodyweight. Angel Guenchev, after having cut down from 75kg to 67.5kg to replace an injured Bulgarian teammate, ground out the heaviest ever triple-bodyweight clean and jerk, tossing himself into a backflip on stage after the lift was passed. In the 75kg middleweight class, Guenchev's comrades Gidikov and Varbanov took gold and bronze.

Five weight classes down and four gold medals for the Bulgarians, only foiled by the 4'11" Turkish lad's magnum opus. If 7 out of 10 gold medals in 1987 had not made it clear enough, Bulgaria's reign had begun. And this with 5,000 registered lifters, compared to the USSR's whopping 340,000.

Still to come was the showing of a deeper heavyweight bench than previous years. This included light-heavyweight Zlatev (230kg (!) clean and jerk in training), middle-heavyweight Chakarov (the "James Dean" of weightlifting), heavyweight Botev (280kg (!!!) clean in straps in training), and super-heavyweight Krastev (225kg (!!) snatch in training).

But it was not to be. News came down from on high that Grablev and Guenchev had tested positive for furosemide, a loop diuretic used to cut weight and hide other compounds from doping tests. Avoiding further scandal, the rest of the Bulgarian team was pulled [3]. The Soviets, predictably, swept the heavyweight classes, winning the remaining 5 gold medals.

To an outsider, it might seem like an unfortunate marr on the Bulgarian team's vaunted history. But this was the genesis of politically-motivated anti-doping in weightlifting.

=== THE DECLINE ===

In the interest of brevity, we will have to skip over a few quads of weightlifting history, including the infighting of the post-Soviet "Unified" Team at Barcelona 1992 and the last hurrah of the Pocket Hercules in 1996.

By 2000, a certain Tamas Ajan had finally emerged from the shadows to ascend to the presidency of the International Weightlifting Federation. Under his oversight, the IWF became a mafia syndicate, using the World Anti-Doping Association as its enforcers. Ajan has been accused of just about every possible form of eurocratic corruption in the independent McLaren Report [4], but the most deleterious to the sport was his command of WADA, of which he was a council member.

The game was simple, and Ajan always won. Option A: pay a bribe to avoid a star athlete inevitably testing positive. Option B: fail the test and pay an anti-doping violation fine. If you ignored Ajan, he would ignore you. Rumor has it that in the Rio 2016 85kg medal ceremony, Ajan shook the hands of fourth, second, and first place, skipping over the Romanian bronze medalist. Almost immediately after the Games the bronze medal was stripped [5], and Romania, for refusing to play Ajan's game, continues to face harassment from WADA.

Weight classes were reorganized multiple times to wipe "doped" records off the books, star Bulgarians fled to Australia and Qatar to escape doping discrimination, and teams would pull their top lifters if they ran out of money to pay bribes. Performance across the board fell off, and at London 2012 the heavyweight field was so sparse that they were outlifted by the middle-heavyweights. That 7 of the 11 A-session middle-heavyweights tested positive is besides the point. That both the middle-heavyweight and heavyweight medals ultimately fell to Iran after the original winners were busted is further beside the point.

The point is, weightlifting was in decline.

=== THE LAST WEIGHTLIFTERS ===

Perhaps the final inheritor of the weightlifting tradition of the 80s was the Kazakh Ilya Ilyin, who won his first Worlds at 17 and burned through three weight classes, never losing an international competition. The Kazakh system blended the Soviet and Bulgarian systems with an added twist of undulating "waves" at maximal weights [6]. A decade into his illustrious career, he clean and jerked a nearly unprecedented 246kg in the heavyweight session at the 2015 Russsian Federation President's Cup. In May 2016 he was named IWF World Weightlifter of the Year. In June he tested postive. In November he was stripped of his two Olympic gold medals.

The Chinese were allowed to carry on unmolested, lending them great success. Though perennial contenders, since 2000 the Chinese have won the middle weight classes consistently. The Azerbaijani-Uzbek Rahimov, their obstacle in Rio 2016, was removed ex post facto in 2022.

Weightlifting's current poster boy is the giant Georgian Lasha Talakhadze, standing alone atop the ruins of a super-heavyweight field decimated by bans and injuries. At 2021 Worlds, Talakhadze totaled 492kg with a 225kg snatch and 267kg clean and jerk, both all-time firsts in competition. Using the Sinclair formula to rank lifters pound-for-pound, at 492 he is alone in the 10 point gap between the greatest Soviets and Bulgarians and Naim Suleymanoglu's 500 point triumph in Seoul.

On the topic of Sinclair points, the average of the gold medals at Seoul 1988 was 472.69. The average at Tokyo 2020 was 461.37, with the Chinese visibly juiced up and Talakhadze doing the most to bring up the average. Most modern sports tend to improve over time, but weightlifting had thrown a 10-kilo baby out with the bathwater.

=== THE FUTURE ===

While not necessarily showcasing the weightlifting's best performances, the Olympics possess undoubtedly the greatest prestige of any competition. But the Internationl Olympic Committee is eager to put down a problem child. At first, 10 weight classes were contested. Then it became 7. For Paris 2024, only 5. Optimists will posit that fewer weightclasses means better TV deals, but less weightlifting is less weightlifting.

For Los Angeles 2028, weightlifting is absent entirely [7]. It may be re-added to the program if the IWF bends to the IOC. Cricket and aid climbing, on the other hand, are thrilling new additions to the Games.

As long as the barbell exists, so will weightlifting, in some form. In the United States, Crossfit, despite its faults, includes the Olympic lifts and has massively increased public interest in the sport.

=== === ===

Why do we compete? Is it to be the best among one's peers? Or to be the greatest of all time? If the former, weightlifting can provide, assuming one turns a blind eye to the blistering corruption. If the latter, fans will have to stick to the history books, and athletes will have to accept not achieving their full potential. ∎

SOURCES:

[1] https://youtu.be/SMCh4Qj3PRE

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og3lpiNHZE4

[3] https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/24/sports/the-seoul-olympics-weight-lifting-team-lifted-after-2d-drug-test-is-failed.html

[4] https://iwf.sport/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2020/08/CORRECTED-300720-FULL-REPORT-MASTER-FINAL-FOR-PUBLICATION-v2.pdf

[5] https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/37643479

[6] https://youtu.be/g34Hf7jBSdc

[7] https://barbend.com/weightlifting-potentially-out-of-2028-olympic-games/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5133155&forum_id=2#44698962)

Where it improves flow, I will use the IOC's nomenclature for the weight classes in weightlifting instead of using kilos parenthetically. Weightlifters are the heaviest athletes per inch of height behind only bodybuilders and powerlifters, so those familiar with combat sport weight classes will not be able to draw a direct comparison. These are the "original" weight classes of 1972:

Flyweight - 52kg/115lb

Bantamweight - 56kg/124lb

Featherweight - 60kg/132lb

Lightweight - 67.5kg/149lb

Middleweight - 75kg/165lb

Light-Heavyweight - 82.5kg/182lb

Middle-Heavyweight - 90kg/198lb

First Heavyweight - 100kg/220lb

Heavyweight - 110kg/242lb

Super-Heavyweight - >110kg/>242lb

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5133155&forum_id=2#44698964)

I fearmonger a little bit about WL being dropped, but there's no way China will give up their 4 free gold medals in 2028.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5133155&forum_id=2#44699366)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_zZSdc6eI0

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5133155&forum_id=2#44700137)

School of Champions - Documents the Bulgarian preparation for their paramount success at the 1987 WWC. A classic. https://youtu.be/pt9qncyfUpo

Ilya Ilyin's Big Friday - The lads at Sika Strength review the greatest week of weightlifting training on film. https://youtu.be/gpWp-IRh4DA

Unbelievable Bulgarians - Randy Strossen from IronMind is a fly on the wall to the afterglow of Bulgarian excellence in 1998. https://youtu.be/3MyzcdMNwLQ

Dmitry Klokov 200kg Pause Snatch - Unchained from weight classes and drug tests, Klokov ensures that "retired" weightlifters will never be let in the back room ever again. https://youtu.be/cv_EWWDV2O0

How to Conquer Olympus - Torokhtiy takes to the mountains of Georgia to film and interview Lasha Talakhadze in training for Tokyo 2020. https://youtu.be/2wzS4Uewddw

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5133155&forum_id=2#44698971)

He died a pretty hard death from liver disease. The PED regimens they took in those days were incredible. There are Bulgarian stories of guys seeing spots and pissing molasses.

Also he knocked up a Japanese girl. If he was Indian he's be XO's idol.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5133155&forum_id=2#44699414)

The rise of the doping control mafia across several sports mirrors the rise & tactics of SJW's in institutions.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5133155&forum_id=2#44733212)

In the States, hopefully a combination of young people having greater access to anabolics and their boomer parents realizing all the top guys and girls in their bougie Crossfit "Box" are doping will lead people to reconsider their sanctimony.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5133155&forum_id=2#44733256)

So everything pre-92 was pretty significant. As far as individual medals that were stripped, I think Guenchev (67.5kg) Seoul '88 is the most egregious. The guy put his life on the line to help his team sweep the golds. He delivered a top 10 all-time performance, even though he wasn't competing in his natural weight class. Guy became a petty criminal after being shut out of sport, there's a Bulgarian docu on it (Salto Mortale)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5133155&forum_id=2#44734443)

- where can I find the pre-92 records?

- give me your other top 10 all time performances

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5133155&forum_id=2#44735833)

95% complete (as in, you won't find stripped medals in there, Grablev/Guenchev are the only ones off the top of my head) pre-92 records at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world_records_in_Olympic_weightlifting You can find vids of most of these on YouTube.

Top 10 would require another write-up

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5133155&forum_id=2#44736056)

Ty

Do top 10 when you feel the urge

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5133155&forum_id=2#44737747)