Of course Olympic viewership is down: IOC knowingly lets doped athlete compete, killing credibility of Olympic Games

 If there is ever a time to write a snarky, jaded post about the Olympics, it is now.

The IOC is knowingly allowing an athlete who tested positive for a banned performance enhancing substance to compete at the Olympics without serving the required suspension.

The athlete is competing for the Russian Olympic Committee as Russia, the country, is essentially sanctioned from this Olympics as punishment for systematic doping. 

The athlete is a minor. It should be criminal to dope a minor.

The IOC’s actions sends a message contrary to the Olympic ideals.

This action sends the following messages:

“ that it is ok to dope if you are in a marquee sport competing for a powerful country.”

“ that all Olympic sports are dirty and are selectively punished.”

This has a lot to do with how weightlifting is being treated by the IOC. Letting this athlete compete invalidates all the criticisms  of weightlifting’s doping problems, as do we really know if weightlifting was any less clean than any other sport?

This has a lot to do with why Olympic viewership ratings are so low. The Olympics were supposed to be about seeing who the athlete with the best physical ability on the  day of the competition was.  Every time politics interferes with this test of mettle, the Olympics becomes less and less credible. The IOC either needs to follow its strict anti-doping guidelines, or it needs to let everyone dope to the same level in their respective gender class. 

The more you look at the politics of the Olympics the more it seems that the best athletes aren’t always the ones competing at the games, so why watch it. 

Enforce the Passport Rule- Master's Weightlifting

To my Dear Master's Weightlifting Federation:

Over the years, you ahve been extremely strict enforcing rules - everything from feet touching the bar to pressouts.  Yet, this morning at the 2019 Pan American Master's Championships, I was shocked to learn that American athletes who forgot to bring their passport were allowed to lift with only a driver's license as proof of nationality. 

This is unacceptable for 1 reason only:

A DRIVER'S LICENSE DOES NOT ESTABLISH ONE'S NATIONALITY.   A foreign National with a Visa or greencard can legally obtain a US driver's license.

In other words, a person can fraudulently compete for the United States by showing a driver's license of a state of which they simply are a resident.

Secondly, this is an International Master's competition.  All athletes were literally at least 34.4 years of age to lift in this competition. This is not Youth Nationals. An adult should be able to follow directions.   No exceptions, such as "they didn't know",  should be made for such a critical rule.

Again, you cannot establish a lifter's ability to compete for the United States on a Driver's license!!!   Not every state even is "Real ID" compliant with Federal law.

In conclusion, any athlete that could not establish their nationality before competing should be disqualified. 

If we can't enforce this most fundamental rule, then why even check that people are even registering for the right age class, why enforce press out rules, why enforce costume rules... Establishing one's ID and national eligibility to compete for a country should be way more important than whether someone's foot grazed the bar.

Peace and Love,

Gwen

The 2018 World Masters Championships just revolutionized the weightlifting meet

The 2018 World Masters Championships were held just across the city line of Barcelona, Spain in L'Hospitalet Llobergat.

The championships actually shutdown entries a few weeks early because the number of registrants was going to surpass 900 athletes.   At the end of the day, somewhere around 900 athletes competed , making it the biggest World's ever.

The competition organizers took a unique strategy to managing the huge number of lifters.    In some sessions, they used two alternating platforms for sequential attempts.   Yes, you are hearing it right, a lifter would almost never take two lifts in a row on the same competition platform.

Here is how it worked. There was a platform A and a platform B.  The first lift of the competition would start on platform A, the second lift on platform B, then the third lift on Platform A, then the fourth lift on Platform B...Lifts were done sequentially, not simultaneously.  Surprisingly, this significantly cut down the length of the session, especially, when you had multiple lifters with the same lifts.  Roughly, the attempts took half the time. This is even considering the fact that lifters did not lift at the same time.  All the time that is wasted between loading attempts, re-loading attempts, athletes changing weights  was saved with having the two sequential platforms.

2018 World Masters Championships Venue

I'm sure some athletes may not have liked lifting on different platforms and bars each attempt. However, there is a psychological advantage of lifting on different platform. For example, a lifter missed their first attempt, it may help them refocus by lifting on a different platform.

It also was an advantage for lifters who had very close starting attempts.   Instead of a lifter waiting minutes between their first and second attempt, due to other lifters attempting the same weight on their first attempt, the wait was about half the time.

For the audience, it made the competition more interesting to view.

This novel idea may just revolutionize the excitement of the weightlifting meet.  I encourage other major events to try it.

The only thing I would change is medals for snatch, clean and jerk, and total.  Medals were given only for total.  Look, there is only one world championship a year, and lifters have to train hard to compete for medals.  There are enough entries to support medals in each lift.

So, yeah,  I won the snatch, and I want a friggin' medal for it!  ;)

Leveraging your invisible load

The mind is a funny thing.  The way we remember, specifically.

I have done thousands of lifts over the course of my life. I don't exactly catalog every single training lift I've ever done in my mind.

However, I am finding just from simple mental cues like looking at an old video, I can remember the exact feel of a lift at that specific time range of training.  I can remember what my training sets felt like at that time - what I was power snatching for triples and how high I caught those snatches.

For Master's lifters or even lifters of any age who have suffered serious injury, you may find yourself in a sense starting over in lifting after a big hiatus.  And, all that work you have done over the years is an accumulation of loading; it is what we call the "invisible load".

What I can recommend to you is to try stepping into lifts- mentally- that you have done before. This is the biggest advantage that you have over your less experienced competitors- having actually done more repetitions and heavier weights in the past.

So, basic tips: think of some of your best lifts, and don't just see them or watch them, actually feel the lifts again.  Find yourself as the same person, that same moment in time doing that lift-- then apply it to the now.