Geeks on Sports: London Olympics 2012 – Weightlifting

Event Dates: Saturday July 28 – Tuesday August 7

Medal Events: 15

Athletes: 260 ( 156 men / 104 women )

 

 

Geeks on Sports previewer Tim Blacksmith here today to tell you all about Weightlifting, a place where the thrust-and-grunt means something entirely different.

 

Feats of strength have long been part of the Olympic spirit.  Think back to the days long past of the ancient Olympiad when naked men would wrestle, run marathons and throw discs.  That takes some serious chutzpah.

 

Courtesy of Getty Images

Today, the Olympians are (thankfully, but in some cases, unfortunately) clothed.  Their feats come in myriad form such as endurance, skill, accuracy and yes, still strength.

 

Weightlifting is a sport where your entire goal is to lift a bar with humongous amounts of weight equally distributed on either side above your head and hold it there for three seconds.

 

Sounds simple enough…until you read the HUMONGOUS AMOUNTS OF WEIGHT part.  That’s generally where I check out.  I’m a gym guy…stop snickering, I swear I am!  I’ve been lifting since I was in my early twenties, but I’ve never once had any desire to dead-lift 300lbs over my head.  With my luck my vertebrae would slip a disc and the bar would fall on my neck paralyzing me.

 

Courtesy of Getty Images

But these mad men and women spend their adult life working to increase their maximum strength by mere pounds so they can surge past their opponents.  Like the long-jumper whose entire career is spent trying to jump a quarter of an inch further, these brutes are programmed to lift, and lift big.

 

This is definitely an event you can just check in on from time to time and watch someone huge lift something massive over their head (or fail to do so) and go back to watching that field hockey match you’re REALLY interested in.

To see where to watch this or your other favorite sports, check out NBC’s coverage in your local area.

 

I hope you have enjoyed this preview of the 2012 London Olympics Weightlifting event.  Continue to check 8DaysAGeek for more previews of Olympic events.

 

Courtesy of London 2012

 

This is Geeks on Sports previewer Tim Blacksmith signing off.

 

Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.