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Fitness

The Next Big Wave for Weightlifting

The thinking person’s barbell sport is poised for another surge in popularity.

Written by Pete Hitzeman Last updated on December 11, 2017

With the 2017 World Championships and the American Open Finals in our rearview mirror, the future has never looked brighter for Olympic Weightlifting in the US. Records fell, and American lifters took historic podium finishes, capped off with Sarah Robles sweeping the gold medals in her division.

With the 2017 World Championships and the American Open Finals in our rearview mirror, the future has never looked brighter for Olympic Weightlifting in the US. Records fell, and American lifters took historic podium finishes, capped off with Sarah Robles sweeping the gold medals in her division.

With nine nations banned from competition as a result of sanctions from the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Weightlifting Federation, these may have been the cleanest World Championships in the modern history of the sport. But we’re a long way off from declaring this a post-doping era, and it remains to be seen if weightlifting can recover its image from that of a dirty sport, like baseball and cycling have struggled to do.

National-level weightlifting coach Daniel Bell of Rubber City Weightlifting sat down with me to recap Worlds, talk about the future of the sport in America, and explore the damage that doping culture has had on even clean athletes. We also cover why women are flocking to (and succeeding in) weightlifting faster than men, why it’s stupid to have PRs in your assistance exercises, and the dilemma of transgender athletes in competitive sports.

About Pete Hitzeman

Pete Hitzeman is an unlikely athlete. Raised in a household of engineers and musicians, he was introduced to athletic training only after joining his high school wrestling team on a whim. The ten years after graduation were filled with more cigarettes, pints, and cheeseburgers than he cares to remember, until he rediscovered mountain biking as an adult.

In the years since, he has steadily developed into a pan-athlete, flinging himself headlong into cycling, running, and CrossFit. Despite being physiologically ill-suited for any of those endeavors, he has competed in a variety of endurance events, including the marathon, 6-hour road bike time trials, and a 100-mile mountain bike race.

His pursuit of his own physical potential is far from over, but his greater desire is to inspire others to find theirs. He has become a race director, fitness media consultant, and a coach and mentor to the athletes around him. He believes that good coffee is the root of all genius, that there’s a bicycle out there for everyone, and that we are all born athletes.

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