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New weightlifting categories
Olympic weightlifting is a weight class sport, meaning you compete against athletes that are within your particular weight range (plus gender and age range). A few days ago, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) announced new weightlifting categories, which hadn’t changed essentially since 1998 (there was a minor change in 2017: one extra category added for women). Current weightlifting categories There are 2 sets of categories, one for competitions organised by the IWF and one for the Olympic games (approved for Tokyo 2020), which is essentially a subset of the former. 10 new bodyweight categories have been approved by the IWF Executive Board and will now be submitted to the…
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What is weightlifting and why I do it
Weightlifting or Olympic weightlifting (a.k.a. Oly lifting or lifting) is an Olympic sport (hence the name) that consists of 2 lifts: the snatch and the clean and jerk (see videos below). When people ask me what I do for exercise (I look fairly strong and fit for a woman my age), I just say “weightlifting” knowing that most people will assume I mean “I lift (pink) weights” or “I do bodybuilding”. Less often, some people think I do powerlifting, which is a completely different beast. I tried to avoid saying the word “Olympic” because some people think this means I actively participate in the Olympic games (LOL!). Training for Olympic…
