Hail to the Dinosaurs!
With the London Olympics right around
the corner, let's review an earlier
Olympic Games in London: the 1948
Olympic Games.
The United States won the team title
in weightlifting. Yes, that's right.
The USA had the very best weightlifting
team in the entire world.
Joe DiPietro started things off by
winning the gold medal in the 123
pound class. Richard Tom grabbed the
bronze medal.
Frank Spellman took the gold at 165
pounds, and Pete George took the
silver. (The back story here was
that they almost missed the weigh-in!
They were roommates at the Olympic
Village, and stayed behind while the
rest of the team went to the lifting
venue. Spellman was sleeping and George
was writing as letter to his family.
Somehow, they lost track of time, and
had to pay a cab driver to break all
speeding laws to get them to the venue
on time. They ended up jumping out of
the cab, throwing a handful of money
at the driver, and sprinting to the
weigh-in room, peeling their clothes
off as they ran up to the scale. They
made it with only a minute or two to
spare.)
Stan Stanczyk walked away with the gold
medal at 181 pounds, and Harold Sakata
too the silver. (Sakata went on to become
a famous professional wrestler, and then
won even greater fame by playing "Odd Job"
in one of the early James Bond films).
John Davis seized the gold medal in the
Heavyweight class, and Norb Schemansky
took the silver.
You can read all about it in my biography
of John Davis -- which weighs in at more
than 450 pages, and has 16 pages of
photos, including some never before
published photos:
http://www.brookskubik.com/blackiron_johndavis.html
They also had a Mr. Universe contest. It
wasn't an Olympic event, but it was held
in conjunction with the Games. John Grimek
won it -- and Steve Reeves took second place.
I cover the contest in detail in my new
John Grimek training course:
http://brookskubik.com/johngrimek_course.html
I don't know what the 2012 Olympic Games will
hold -- but I bet we're going to see some more
great lifting! I don't know about you, but I'm
looking forward to it!
Yours in strength,
Brooks Kubik
P.S. Greg Everett has just released a very good
book called "Olympic Weightlifting for Sports."
It's short, concise, and to the point, and does
a great job of simplifying the lifts. I give
it four stars -- and you can grab a copy right
here (note: it's on Amazon, but it's always better
to order directly from the author -- it helps
keep them in business!):
http://www.catalystathletics.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=581
P.S. 2. For more about the history of the iron
Game in the USA, grab my Legacy of Iron books:
http://www.brookskubik.com/legacy_of_iron.html
http://www.brookskubik.com/clouds_of_war.html
http://www.brookskubik.com/1000pound_total.html
http://www.brookskubik.com/legacy_of_iron4.html
http://www.brookskubik.com/barbells_pacific.html
P.S. 3. Thought for the Day: "A true champion
teaches us the meaning of greatness -- and how
to achieve it in our own lives." -- Brooks Kubik
