In honor of the 2016 Summer Olympics, I wanted to post up a few Youtube videos to get people pumped up about the weightlifting!  First, a highlights clip (3 minutes) from the 2012 Olympics:

2012 Olympic Games highlights (won’t embed)

Here’s a clip (2 minutes) of Kendrick Farris, the sole male U.S. lifter who qualified for the 2016 Olympics.  He’s pretty amazing!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCIrldnq9x4

Clip (1 minute) of Morghan King, top ranked female US Olympic lifter who qualified for the 2016 Olympics:

Some people are turned off to Olympic lifting because many of the lifters don’t have super impressive physiques.  In fact, the lightweight lifters might remind you of your wiry cousin the construction worker, and the super heavyweight lifters might remind you of your fat uncle the plumber!  That’s because most modern Olympic lifters just do the two Olympic lifts and squats for low reps, and nothing else.  Back in the day, Olympic lifters did a lot of general strength and muscle building work in the off season and had tremendous physiques to go along with their strength.  Here’s a clip (3 minutes) of one of my favorite lifters, Russian Dmitry Klokov, who is a throwback to those old days.  This guy is an absolute beast!

Finally, here’s a longer clip (8 mins) of one of my favorite Olympic lifting stories.  Good guy Matthias Steiner loses his wife in a fatal car crash, nearly quits lifting, and then goes to the Olympics as a complete underdog wins gold!

Hope you enjoyed the clips and be sure to catch the Olympic Games on TV later this summer!