This one goes out to you olympic lifting aficionados who want to learn a little bit about the greats that came before you. While I do not claim to be an expert when it comes to olympic lifting, I do have a great respect for it. By far, one of the lifters I have the most respect for throughout all of history is Norbert Schemansky. Not only was he an amazing lifter, he also must be respected for his longevity in the sport and his tenacity to continue in the face of adversity. Norb competed in the days, prior to 1972, where in olympic lifting was a 3 lift contest of the clean and press, snatch, and clean and jerk. As noted by all of the pictures below, he was also a proponent of the now (mostly) extinct split style of lifting. His career spanned over two decades, beginning in 1947 and ending in 1972 with the elimination of the press as a competitive lift.
Schemansky started his career as a lighter lifter, he was renowned for his speed, being considered a specialist on the quick lifts, the snatch and the clean and jerk. Overall, he was considered a poor presser in his early stages. Steadily gaining weight however, his lifts began to rise and eventually he tipped the scales at over 270 lbs of pure muscle competing as a super-heavyweight, returning for a debilitating back injury in 1955 to reach the top yet again.
Schemansky was also a well rounded lifter, being able to squat just under 600 lbs in olympic style without obvious strain, and reportedly deadlifting over 600 lbs in one of his seldom attempts at the lift. In addition, he eventually became one of the few men in his day capable of putting Apollon's Wheels (pictured above), a beastly contraption of 366 lbs with a thick handle and non revolving train wheels for plates. By this point, he had also made it abundantly clear that he was not only adept at the quick lifts, but also possessed the raw strength to be a great presser, eventually pressing right around 400 lbs in olympic style by the end of his career.
Schemansky's training was unique in that unlike many modern olympic lifters, he would often take long periods of the time in the off season in which he did not perform the full olympic lifts in competition style. Rather, he would first begin power cleaning and snatching without foot movement, move on to power snatching and cleaning with foot movement, and eventually transitioning to the full snatch and clean. He believed that doing so strengthened his second pull and would make him stronger on the full lifts once he resumed training them. Schemansky was unique in that he lifted in 4 separate olympic games, obtaining 1 gold, 1 silver, and 2 bronze medals. He eventually totaled 1200 lbs in the 3 lifts, an incredible feat of strength. Truly Norb Schemansky embodies an impressive and ill forgotten legend of iron game history.
