You know, when I think about it, this is a pretty ****ty way to organize an event, in my opinion. I mean, unless you have a dog in the race, what could possibly be the incentive to watch ninety-five percent of the weightlifting event when you know that only the last five percent (or perhaps even less) is at all relevant.
Case in point:
Case in point:
Mi-ran Jang of South Korea absolutely crushed all opponents in the 75+ kg women's weightlifting competition today. How dominant was she? Well, as mentioned above, you don't lift until everybody else is either done, or until they work their way up to the weight you want to lift. So, if you want to lift two hundred pounds, you have to wait until either everybody else is lifting two hundred pounds as well, or, if no-one else is going to lift that much, you have to wait until everybody else is finished.
Olha Korobka, the silver medalist from the Ukrain,e completed the Clean and Jerk portion of the event with a successful lift of 153kg (336.6 lbs). They get three chances to lift, and she didn't even attempt a third lift, knowing that a) her second lift was good enough to clinch the silver and b) she had no chance of sniffing gold.
And why was so sure? Because, whereas her max lift was 153 kg, Jang's starting weight was 170 kg (374 lbs), almost forty pounds better. Jang was already so far out in front by virtue of a World Record-breaking 140 kg snatch, that she could have clinched the gold medal with a C&J of 137 kg.
Instead, she lifted over seventy pounds more than she had to, and blew away the competition on her very first attempt... but, at least she went on to give the fans a show at that point, going out on her next attempt (despite not needing to) and lifting 183 kg (402.6 lbs) to break the World Record... and then went out and lifted 186 (409.2) to break it again! She finished with a combined lift in the snatch and clean and jerk of 326 kg (717 lbs) to win the gold in dominant fashion, outdoing the silver medalist by over a hundred pounds!
But, the point is that everybody else had long since been finished before she even started. When the rules state that whatever weight you lift, everybody after you has to be able to lift that much as well, and all the other competitors have completed their three lifts before she's attempted her first, then it takes all the drama out of the event, because you know that all she has to do is complete one lift, and it's over.
Olha Korobka, the silver medalist from the Ukrain,e completed the Clean and Jerk portion of the event with a successful lift of 153kg (336.6 lbs). They get three chances to lift, and she didn't even attempt a third lift, knowing that a) her second lift was good enough to clinch the silver and b) she had no chance of sniffing gold.
And why was so sure? Because, whereas her max lift was 153 kg, Jang's starting weight was 170 kg (374 lbs), almost forty pounds better. Jang was already so far out in front by virtue of a World Record-breaking 140 kg snatch, that she could have clinched the gold medal with a C&J of 137 kg.
Instead, she lifted over seventy pounds more than she had to, and blew away the competition on her very first attempt... but, at least she went on to give the fans a show at that point, going out on her next attempt (despite not needing to) and lifting 183 kg (402.6 lbs) to break the World Record... and then went out and lifted 186 (409.2) to break it again! She finished with a combined lift in the snatch and clean and jerk of 326 kg (717 lbs) to win the gold in dominant fashion, outdoing the silver medalist by over a hundred pounds!
But, the point is that everybody else had long since been finished before she even started. When the rules state that whatever weight you lift, everybody after you has to be able to lift that much as well, and all the other competitors have completed their three lifts before she's attempted her first, then it takes all the drama out of the event, because you know that all she has to do is complete one lift, and it's over.
mad: ).As to the competition, that's the way they do it in a lot of sports. The high jump and pole vault are similar. It would be a pain to keep adjusting the bar by putting on and taking off weight, and this actually allows the competition to build to a climax. Besides, how often do you get someone that dominant? When people are more evenly matched, then doing it this way allows for real drama.
