It almost impossible to trace an exact date of the first weightlifting championship, tests of human strength, in one form or another, are probably older than civilization itself. Images of athletes lifting heavy objects, apparently for sport, appear in ancient Egyptian records, in Chinese texts and in Greek carvings.

Weightlifting dates back to 300 BC in a Chinese text that describes soldier lifting weighted objects before entry to military. The tombs of Pharaohs describe athletes lifting bags of sand. Sculptures from ancient Greece illustrate weightlifting. A stone was found at Olympia dating back to 600 BC. The stone stated that it was lifted by an athlete named Bybon.

The first organized weightlifting competition began in Europe in the late 1800’s, and the sport’s first world champion was crowned on 28 March 1891 in London, England. In those unsophisticated days there were no divisions, the world crown went to the man able to lift the most weight, regardless of his own size. This event consisted of seven athletes from six countries. Levi Laurens, an Englishman, won the first gold medal of the world championship.

Weightlifting was on the program for the first Games in 1896, as part of athletic, but was left out of the 1900 games. It reappeared in 1904 but didn’t return to the Olympic fold again until 1920 when it was admitted in its own right. In those early days, Olympic weightlifting incorporated some events which would seem strange today. The first weightlifting competition consisted of two events, the one hand lift and the two hand lift with no weight division. Launceston Elliott of Great Britain took the gold in the one hand lift while Viggo Jensen of Denmark took the gold in the two hand lift.

But by 1932 five weight divisions had been established and three disciplines made up the competition which are snatch, press and clean & jerk. In 1972 the press was abolished, leaving the snatch and clean & jerk as the sport’s two Olympic discipline. The women’s competition made its Olympics debut in 2000 in Sydney.