Giorgi Tchintcharauli, the doctor of the Georgian national weightlifting team, has posted video of Lasha Talakhadze’s practice sessions at the Tokyo Olympics and it should be enough to send every one of his competitors packing for home.
Giorgi Tchintcharauli, the doctor of the Georgian national weightlifting team, has posted video of Lasha Talakhadze’s practice sessions at the Tokyo Olympics and it should be enough to send every one of his competitors packing for home.
Talakhadze is the most dominant lifter of his generation and he is pushing beyond the limits of what people thought was possible in weightlifting, creating a groundswell of hope among enthusiasts who would like to see him be the first person to break the 500 kg total barrier.
In practice at Tokyo, Talakhadze is snatching 220 kg and clean and jerking 255 kg, doing the latter for 2 reps. Sure, that’s still 25 kg short of the magic 500 but the man is hardly breaking a sweat.
Talakhadze holds the world records in both lifts, 222 kg and 267 kg respectively. His competition total, another world record, is 485 kg, although his individual records would, if they occurred at the same event, take him up to 489 kg.
The guy is 27 years old and you have to believe that he is not anywhere near his peak in the sport. If there was a sure thing at the Olympics this year it would be Lasha Talakhadze.