Chit-chat thread

[strapping]

The original idea behind the 90kg class (and then 87, now 86) to me was always also about having a non-SHW lifter break the 300 barrier. It's a threshold! But there's a surprisingly small amount of non-Chinese women to ever do it. And it never happened in a limited class. Why is that, after all? I think Koanda NOR could do it at like 100kg...

Lack of anabolics in the post-Ajan era. It's reductive, but I think that's the biggest reason. I don't expect 300 from any non-SHW unless there is a radical change where weightlifting becomes a sport that is actually popular. 2011 Zabolotnaya is the closest we'll ever get.

IMO there is an argument to make that whatever the women's heavyweight category is, should either be in the high 70s/low 80s (where the talent pool currently drops off a cliff) or into the 90s to make a significant distinction between the heavyweight and sub-heavyweight category.

I still maintain that women who would be ideal for this BW range get funneled into athletics/throwing instead.

I agree that the talent pool for heavier women's categories is thinned out by other sports, T&F in particular but also other sports. At least two of the women's SHW in this quad were former throwers. Mary Theisen-Lappen started at 28 after the end of her throwing career and still had enough time and talent left over to go to the Olympics in her mid 30s.

Internationally, women's SHW is basically a contest of who can be the tallest without being weak and lanky. A lot of throwers would make great SHWs. Maybe if we had more taller women (175+ cm) in the women's SHW, the increased talent pool could drive the HW category to be genuinely competitive as there would be greater numbers of women around 167-171cm (HW) and over 171cm (SHW) .

If we had infinite (~10-12) weight categories a bit like powerlifting, I personally would like a relatively heavy women's HW category to be honest, even if it's not quite as competitive as the sub/light heavyweights. It's good for local/small competitions. But weight categories IMO are for national level and international level events, so Olympic politics and performances needs to be taken into account. Sad but true.

[Elle]

Happy New Year to everyone!

Do you have any good resolutions for the new year? I think I'll get back to training, even though it's early for weightlifting, I'm totally deconditioned. I'll start by exploring the kettlebell a bit, it's always fascinated me.

[Guima73]

Happy New Year to everyone!

Do you have any good resolutions for the new year? I think I'll get back to training, even though it's early for weightlifting, I'm totally deconditioned. I'll start by exploring the kettlebell a bit, it's always fascinated me.

Happy New Year!

[Hawkpeter]

Happy New Year to everyone!

Do you have any good resolutions for the new year? I think I'll get back to training, even though it's early for weightlifting, I'm totally deconditioned. I'll start by exploring the kettlebell a bit, it's always fascinated me.

For 2025 I want to coach more kids, and I want to open up communication with people in the sport from different parts of the world who work on the administration side.

[brian.degennaro]

I hope to get back to being able to doing the classic lifts again after my elbow arthroscopy in Oct. 2024. Those bone spurs plagued me long enough, so hopefully I can return to some semblance of normal training after 5 years. Currently rekindling my love for track & field.

Career side, I would love to increase the number of in person and remote athletes to coach. I feel weightlifting as of late has been a hard "sell" since all we have to train for is the traditional competition format, and for recreational athletes it is not as enticing as it once was.

[Hawkpeter]

Over in Powerlifting land, they've created another self-induced crisis.

The IPF have announced that certain knee sleeves are no longer approved for use. Why this might be relevant to weightlifting is that the remaining products are largely from SBD - a new sponsor of the IWF. There are of course all sorts of conjecture about the 'real' reasons behind the technical rule change with the IPF, I dont know enough to comment on the reliability of that conjecture but at the time of the announcement of the IWF sponsorship with SBD it did cross my mind that eventually SBD would want exclusivity with equipment in IWF competitions.

[Elle]

Here someone says that the problem was that the samples that the companies gave to IPF initially were different from those that were actually produced. It seems strange to me that so many companies have "cheated" the IPF. However, SBD is one of the few companies that has not had any problems. Any coincidences? XD

Someone says that there will be further developments.

Edit

I just saw it. In fact, the issue appears unclear.

[Hawkpeter]

I think the number of lifters with a 100kg over bw snatch stands at 8. What are the chances we see Nasar make a 194kg snatch at 94kg?

[erpel]

190+ yes, but maybe he will burn out before he reaches that number. However it's very possible, I give it 80% atm.
I also think Shi could've done 173 at his peak.

IIRC we have:

Lyu (77)
Zlatev (82.5)
Vardanyan (82.5/90)
Rybakov (85)
Blagoev (90)
Solodov (90)
Khrapaty (90)
Vlad (100)
Zakharevich (100/110)

[Hawkpeter]

Damn, I didnt have Zlatev, forgot the 183WR he had at 82.5kg - shame on me.

Thing that will make it extra hard is the likelihood of just wanting to take the WR up 1kilo at a time. If it goes to something like 185/186 at Senior worlds this year - thats a lot of 1kg WR's to make. And that means staying in top shape for probably the whole 3 years to LA.