The moment of the games for me

Hanley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-dMH15Pd0I

German lifter Matthias Steiner won the gold today in the 105+kg class in Beijing with an absolutely jaw dropping performance.

His wife was tragically killed in a car accident last year and Steiner vowed to go into the Olympics and win gold for her.

He came into the clean and jerk 7kg behind the Russian monster Evgeny Chigisev, and had fallen even further behind to 9kg off coming into his last clean and jerk. Steiner jumped 10kg (a HUGE amount in weightlifting at that level) for the win, I remember looking at it and thinking "not a hope". Next thing I knew it was over his head, and the video tells the rest of the story.

I thought Bolt's performance the other day was something that would stick with me for a long time. But I know I will never forget what Steiner did today. It's up there with Dimas leaving his shoes on the platform in Athens after missing his last lift in '04 when it comes to things that choked me up on the weightlifting platform.

THIS is what The Olympics is all about.

thirtyfoot

Hanley wrote: »

THIS is what The Olympics is all about.

So true. It was great and it really shows what the Olympics are about. When you compare this to the prima donnas who earn 150k a week playing football in the Premiership and regard themselves as slaves, it reminds me what sport is about. This is why I love the Olympics. 95% of the athletes are just regular joe soap athletes who do their sport for one thing - personal achievement and maybe a medal along the way. This is lost in the media among the scandals of drugs in the past or political issues. I love the coach reaction too.

brianthebard

Saw that earlier,incredibly strong man in all senses.What makes his win even more impressive for me is he dropped the bar on himself after one snatch attempt,couldve shook him up or put him off,but he just stuck it out.

Al_Fernz

Hanley wrote: »

THIS is what The Olympics is all about.

+1

Emotional rollercoaster.

I haven't felt like this since watching Cool Runnings back in the day.:cool:

Esse85

Its great to see an athlete use a tragedy like losing his wife to inspire him to an olympic gold.

The look on that Russian guy's face was priceless.

kevpants

What a story.

It just struck me though, that whole situation was pretty similar to the plot from Rocky IV. Granted the monster russian didn't kill his wife.

Hanley

brianthebard wrote: »

Saw that earlier,incredibly strong man in all senses.What makes his win even more impressive for me is he dropped the bar on himself after one snatch attempt,couldve shook him up or put him off,but he just stuck it out.

Yeah I shoulda said that actually. He came really close to dislocating his elbow (and taking his head off!!).

Esse85 wrote: »

Its great to see an athlete use a tragedy like losing his wife to inspire him to an olympic gold.

The look on that Russian guy's face was priceless.

Yeah I kinda felt for Chigishev. I'm a MASSIVE fan of his. He clean and jerked 2x bodyweight actually, which for a super is HUGE. I dunno if it's been done before. And he looks like a superhero. I've always thoguht that's the type of body I'd like!!

0utshined

Recorded this on Eurosport earlier and just finished watching it. Brilliant competition, I love it when it goes down to the last lifts. The Russians were sure they had it after Ščerbatihs missed his last lift but it's never over till the last attempt. Does anyone know why Jaber wasn't competing? Could have made things very interesting.

Delighted for Steiner though, the guy put in a great performance and pulled out all the stops. Nice touch in the medal ceremony as well.