Weightlifting Rotterdam 3.59

What is Olympic Weightlifting?

Weightlifting is the ultimate sport; it requires and produces explosive power, technique, coordination, balance, flexibility, and mental focus. Olympic Weightlifting is one of the oldest competitive sports still practiced today, tracing its origins back to ancient Greece, Egypt and China. The modern sport of Olympic Weightlifting was added to the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896.

In Olympic Weightlifting, two lifts are practised and contested where the primary goal is to lift the weight from the floor to an overhead position. The first lift is the ‘snatch’, where the bar is lifted overhead in one fluent movement. The second lift is the ‘clean and jerk’, where the bar is lifted from the floor to the chest and then is jerked overhead. In both lifts, explosiveness and strength make them pound-for-pound the most powerful human movements in all of sport.

Olympic weightlifting is internationally experiencing a phenomenal growth, both as a competitive sport, and as the premier explosive training for other sports, such as CrossFit.