Looking back on the history of weightlifting, if black athletes were not wanted in some gyms they also did not want to go to many in the first place. The sport was not popular with them, and not that popular in Caucasian circles either for that matter. Racist coaches, if they existed, could hide in the camouflage of demographics. But at the same time non-racist coaches could thus not be distinguished from the racist ones, so it is difficult to determine if this was a major cause of the paucity of black lifters in decades gone by.

The United States has had few outstanding black stars. Much has been written about the immortal John Henry Davis, of New York City. Named after the “steel drivin’ man,” Davis won two Olympic golds and five World Championships. Jim Bradford of Washington, DC was right behind Davis in many of those events. A strict presser, Bradford could lift more strict than those who pressed loose. He is still famous for the “Bradford Press.” To do this, take the bar off a rack and military press it in front of the face, then lower it behind the head and press it back up. (Safety tip: Do this only if you have very flexible shoulders. It’s hard on the rotators).

In the 1980s our fellow contributor Bob Takano coached the late Albert Hood of Los Angeles to National Championships and a berth on the 1984 Olympic team. In recent years the Chaplin family of Savannah, Georgia has been successful. Young Oscar Chaplin III has been a National Champion, and his father Oscar Jr was also a lifter and now a coach. Finally, mother Rebecca noticed she was the only one in the house who had not become a weightlifting champion. So at an advanced age she started accompanying her husband to the gym where he set about correcting that circumstance – and they succeeded.

Canada had a number of black lifters but those were disproportionately successful at the Nationals. Although the King holiday is not celebrated in Canada where I live, many of the 750,000 Afro-Canucks have taken inspiration from his message and mission. Since many are relatively recent arrivals from the Caribbean, Africa, and the United Kingdom, they have also been concerned with their status in their new country. (By the way, the term “Canuck” is not a slur in Canada, especially in Vancouver’s hockey arena.)

Across the water Great Britain had a four-time world champion in Louis Martin who originally came from Jamaica. Nigeria has had a lot of good lifters in recent years. That country with its oil wealth is able to finance the establishment of a successful program in Africa. In the early days they hired a Bulgarian coach but are now using homegrown talent to remain a power. The sport has made some inroads in other parts of Africa but this has been slow for a number of reasons, most due to the economic and political conditions in those countries not being conducive to produce champion athletes.

Cuba had a few years of dominance in the Pan-Am Confederation. This was thanks to their Soviet sponsors. They had a lot of good lifters, proving that dominance can be achieved quickly if the will is there. Several other Central and South American nations also have fielded good athletes in recent years and some of these have been black. This is a result of more money being spent on sports due to a desire for athletic prestige, as well as increased standard of living that can foot the bill.

Overall black athletes have done well. But why have they not done much better, especially in the United States?

Well, for one thing it is not so much a case of having done poorly but one of not competing in the first place. In the early years many YMCAs and other gyms were closed to any black people, so few would be introduced to the sport. I remember one YMCA employee who told me he would do everything possible to discourage blacks from joining. This was in 1967, after the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He is now long dead so don’t ask me for the name of someone whom you can boycott. This does show the degree of resistance present in days gone by.

Another barrier has been that the sport was perceived as an immigrant sport. Indeed it had not been part of black cultural experience in the days of pre-WWII segregation. Much of the U.S. then was segregated de facto if not de jure (although that was often true as well). Weightlifting was just not on the radar in black neighborhoods.

Finally, just like white athletes, there are a number of sports that are able to lay claim to the good athletes long before any lifting coach ever sees them. The lure of professional sports for urban kids has been written about by many. They criticize the spending of so much youthful effort on an enterprise that will likely fail. But at least there is the possibility that they just might succeed and get that big contract. That will not happen in lifting, even if an Olympic gold were to materialize (still unlikely). So you can’t blame them. Playing the numbers is a long shot. Almost all the time you lose. But the 1000:1 odds at least pay out at 600:1. In weightlifting, whatever the odds, the result is often a negative payout. I don’t blame the kids. But I often wonder how great a lifter someone like Herschel Walker or Bo Jackson would have been if they concentrated on our sport.

Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others like him devoted their lives to bringing their people into the mainstream of American life. Their struggle also encouraged those in other countries. Weightlifting also has struggled to get mainstream acceptance (although we cannot pretend that our struggle has any of the gravity of theirs). Just the same, as black people and weightlifting do gain ever more mainstream acceptance it is likely that more black athletes will not only choose our sport but will rise on its podia as well. East Europeans have replaced many blacks in boxing. It would not be impossible for blacks to return the favor in lifting.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Indeed the early female promoters were mostly from the so-called Anglo Saxon nations of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. This was due in no small measure to the vigorous feminist movements that took root there earlier. In looking back one is impressed not so much by the performances, now dwarfed by modern ones, but by the simple willingness for the women to try the traditionally masculine sports and to not consider such activity aberrant. They were also assisted by the legal environments in these jurisdictions, which would not countenance separate treatment. Women wanted to compete, and not with men either, since they, like all athletes, wanted to win.

No one tried to argue that women could be as strong as a man. That was easily refuted. As such, why should women have to settle for the lower echelons of the sport? Due to small numbers, women had to tolerate this at first but soon they did have enough numbers to compete separately even if the entry list was low. Equity would have to rule.

Some of the early stars help in the sport’s acceptance. One was Csilla Földi, daughter of five-time Hungarian Olympian Imre Földi. Though not a world beater, I am now certain that she and her legendary father-coach gave the idea of women’s lifting a lot of legitimacy in the first women’s international tournament, held in Hungary, their home country and also that of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF). Soon the minds of its erstwhile skeptical sport leaders were shifting. Its future was still uncertain, but the early results were enough that the IWF wanted to continue. The first Worlds were held in 1987 in Florida. Soon Bulgaria had many of the early champions, followed by China. The latter soon forced all others to aim for the silvers only. They were eventually joined by the other East Bloc countries. Once again the West was relegated to the lower echelons.

At first many thought women’s performances would never top a certain level. Each observer had his own idea of how high that would be, but the one thing they all had in common was that all would prove too low. I remember when Karyn Marshall of the United States broke the 300lb barrier. (Pictured to the right) She was well ahead of anyone else in the 1987 Worlds so many assumed she had topped out for women. This was greater than anyone else in history, topping the nearly century old Guinness mark of vaudeville professional Katie Sandwina. Since Karyn did this as a tall 82kg-er it was naturally assumed that the lighter categories would not approach her lifts. And no one ever expected any woman to clean and jerk 400lb. Such seemed impossible.

Well, just look at the records. They climbed ever higher. Even the 58kg category surpassed the 300lb jerk. In London, Marshall’s 1987 performance would have landed her in tenth place. Competition did indeed force all to rise to new heights. Marshall would later gain success with Masters lifting, CrossFit, and most courageously, in fighting cancer.

Now it is not just the women of the North Atlantic or East Bloc community that lift weights. A look at the London results shows a diverse array of nations, many of which would not have gotten into women’s lifting if the lead had not been taken by the pioneers of the 1980s.

Progress has not come solely from the athletes – a major change has occurred just recently with regard to officiating. Now every referee team will consist of four referees, three active and one reserve, rotated with each session they work. Nothing new there except that two of them now must be women. In this way any group may decently handle a weigh-in regardless of sex (only two referees are needed for a weigh-in). This will in turn mean that every nation will now have to recruit and train female referees if they want to have a better chance of having anyone selected to officiate.

In addition to that, the IWF Executive will be co-opting a female on their executive if none is elected in their own right. So now a female voice will be heard in every Executive meeting and will also have to be considered whenever lobbying is contemplated. There are a number of women serving at committee levels, which are stepping-stones to higher positions, so there are opportunities for working an apprenticeship if they desire. In national circles more women are appearing in executive positions so some of them may rise to higher positions in time. We will have to see.

With regard to coaching things have been uneven. Most women lifters still have male coaches. Some female coaches are appearing, but not as fast as desired. This may be due to the life cycles of the athletes who may want to coach. After a few years of training, mostly in their teens and early twenties, they, like their male counterparts, will need to make up for some lost time, either in a career or in having a family, or both. These will leave little time for coaching so often things end here for female lifters. They may be able to return to the sport some years later, but it is always difficult making a career re-entry as many women can attest. It remains to be seen how the coaching side will develop. Outside the sport we are seeing some female strength coaches in other weight training circles where the incumbents are still young or where the time demands may be less onerous. We will see more of them, but the degree of change is still hard to predict.

All in all, the last 25 years have seen amazing changes with regard to women’s weightlifting. No longer a freak show or even a self-conscious or forced exercise in sexual equality it is now a respected part of the Olympic program and a legitimate athletic ambition for many girls. Women are part of the establishment of the sport now, appearing in all roles, albeit still somewhat unevenly. While this is satisfying it also forces one to wonder what the gender landscape will look like in another 25 years. Where will the women’s records be? How many female national presidents will there be? How many girls will be able to obtain sponsorships that only male athletes have much chance of getting today?

Karyn Marshall photos by Virginia Tehan (mother of Karyn Marshall) [CC-BY-SA-2.5], via Wikimedia Commons.

Photo 3 courtesy of Greg Everett and Catalyst Athletics.

The post Women’s Weightlifting: A Journey of 25 Years appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I guess he didn’t mean equality equality. Even the ancient Olympic Games added the Heraea Games in 6 BC for women athletes to compete in honor of goddess Hera. This is not to say that the ancient Games were equal, but did we really have to start from scratch 2,300 years later, Pierre?

We were first allowed to compete in the 1900 Olympic Games in tennis and golf wearing long gowns. We wore long, wool garments when we were allowed to compete in swimming in 1912.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was possibly trying to drown us rather than keep us decent. In 1928, women competed in track and field events for the first time, but “because of the exhausted condition of some of the women at the end of the 800 meter final, [women’s track & field] was dropped from the Olympic program until 1960.” God forbid we should breathe hard and sweat at the end of competition.

We’ve been tossed sports throughout the years ever since. The latest being: the introduction of women’s shooting events and the marathon in 1984, and then women’s judo in 1992.

We couldn’t compete in Olympic weightlifting or the hammer throw (yes, this is still a sport) until 2000. 2012 marks the first year women will compete in boxing at the Olympic level.

As we celebrate the thirtieth Olympic Games, we are still setting significant milestones for women in the Olympics. One hundred and sixteen years after the Games’ modern-day revival, we are still fighting to prove our legitimacy as athletes at every level.

We are on the most level playing field since the inception of the Olympics. For the first time, every country represented now has a female athlete participating. For the first time, every sport is now represented also by a female counterpart.

That’s not to say there are still some adjustments left to be made. Among them, the 100-strong IOC has only 14 women, though one of these women, former hurdles champion Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco, became the first woman to be elected a vice president.

And then there’s the embarrassing fact that this year both Australia and Japan flew their female athletes economy class while the men sat at the front of the plane.

This is despite the fact that the Japanese women’s soccer team is the world champion – the men’s is not – and the celebrated Australian women’s basketball team has medaled in the last three Olympics.

The men’s team has never medaled. “It should have been the other way around,” said 2011 FIFA women’s world player of the year Homare Sawa. “Even just in terms of age we are senior.”³

Other firsts for women this year include

• The U.S. Olympic Team, for the first time, has more women competitors than men: 269 to 261. The Russian team is also majorly female.
• These Games will feature the most pregnant athlete to compete in an Olympics, Malaysian shooter Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi, who is due to give birth to a girl any day now.

Many Arab female athletes are setting firsts this year including

• Goksu Uctas is the first Turkish woman to ever compete in gymnastics. Since Turkey has no gymnastics team and therefore no other female gymnast has gone to the Olympics before, Uctas researched online how to get herself qualified.
• 17-year-old Khadija Mohammed is the first female weightlifter to represent the United Arab Emirates, and she is the first from the Middle East to qualify outright in weightlifting.⁴
• Egypt, despite its political instability, will send thirty-four female athletes, the largest delegation it has ever sent. This is the largest any Muslim nation has sent.

The most glaring milestone this year is the inclusion of female athletes from the last three countries that have never included women before: Saudi Arabia, Brunei, and Qatar.

Only three weeks ago did Saudi Arabia even reach the decision to include the two athletes, 800m runner Sarah Attar, who grew up in California, and judo heavyweight Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shaherkani, who cannot train within the Saudi kingdom – it is illegal.

At the time of this article, there was still speculation whether Shakerkani would withdraw from the Olympics if she is not allowed to wear the hijab, her head scarf, which was one of the stipulations that the Prince of Saudi Arabia put on the athletes if they were to compete. Attar will run with a more turban-like head cover. The IOC is debating the safety of a head scarf in a judo match.

Though many Saudis have cautiously praised the athletes, conservatives and clerics have blasted the women online calling them a disgrace and “Olympic whores,” going so far as to claim that the women will fall down on purpose to expose themselves.

These athletes live with this turmoil daily. Before they came into the world’s view, way before these Olympics, these women trained in a sport they loved despite constant contention.

They trained anyway and become better without any certainty that they would ever be tapped to step into the spotlight. There are countless athletes about whom we will never know.

And for many women from the most conservative countries especially, they’ve had to train secretly, hidden away for fear of death threats and other punishments and humiliation that goes beyond our comprehension.

Most of us fist pumped when we initially heard of the inclusion of the Saudi women, as if the matter was suddenly solved and done. But the issues are so complicated for Arab women that it’s hard to say where these milestones will lead. Is this the beginning or the end?

Girls in Saudi Arabia will not be allowed to watch the Olympics; they cannot even participate in P.E in school.

For the athletes, it is so much to bear – almost too much – to be the first. It forces me to acknowledge all women who have been the first to push their way into their passions no matter the opposition. Even during the very first modern Olympics in 1896, two Greek women who were denied participation in the marathon ran it anyway, unofficially.

I love these kinds of stories. They make me feel triumphant and proud – thankful mostly – but really I can’t imagine the spotlighted scrutiny of being the first.

I’m not sure I could take the cruel criticism of being called a disgrace to my country, culture, and religion. I am possibly not strong enough to constantly hear that I can’t, that I shouldn’t.

I’ve towed the line at a very small level, but I don’t know if I’m brave enough to go through what past or present pioneers must have or do endure. So, I will just be thankful for them and root for them not just for their events, but for their lives beyond these Games.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Breaking the Glass Hurdle: Women’s Firsts in the 2012 Olympics appeared first on Breaking Muscle.