Are Olympic Weightlifters Athletes?

[quote]Koing wrote:
The dicionary definition of athletic

  1. physically active and strong; good at athletics or sports: an athletic child.
  2. of, like, or befitting an athlete.
  3. of or pertaining to athletes; involving the use of physical skills or capabilities, as strength, agility, or stamina: athletic sports; athletic training.
  4. for athletics: an athletic field.
  5. Psychology. (of a physical type) having a sturdy build or well-proportioned body structure. Compare asthenic (def. 2), pyknic (def. 1).

1: check
2: befitting of an athlete? Well she is carrying a higher bf% then the people’s definition here
3: check
4: n/a
5: she has big legs but also a bit stomach…

The thing with a definition is, it’s pretty useless unless people use the ‘same’ definition otherwise it makes no sense. You can’t have people call some arbitary word this, and others to agree it means something else.

So by your definition you woudln’t call a fat (+25% super heavy class) wrestler athletic?

She’s athletic but she could stand to lose 20-30kg?

Koing

PS some solid lifts![/quote]

Well, I guess what I consider “athletic” doesn’t jive 100% with the definition. Oh well, I don’t think it changes my opinion much.

And to answer your question about wrestlers, well, firstly, there is no superheavy (unlimited) weight class in wrestling. Internationally it tops out at 120kg for men and 72kg for women, and I think the upper limit in American collegiate wrestling is 285 pounds or something like that. I used to wrestle for a long time, and I did see a number of heavyweight wrestlers who could be considered “fat,” but those generally weren’t the guys who stuck with the sport for a long time. Most of the heavyweight wrestlers I knew weren’t fat as far as I was concerned, they were just big. Regardless, some of them didn’t look overly athletic in say street clothes, but once they got on the mat and you saw how they moved it was obvious they were athletes. That’s one thing wrong with this thread, it’s tough to judge someone based solely on a picture. Maybe if the OP had linked us to a video or something instead of just giving us a picture this thread would have evolved differently.

[quote]Koing wrote:
So Clean and Jerking 120Kg over head for a female isn’t athletic? Clean and Jerking 100kg for ANYONE, let alone a girl is fairly impressive imo.

I think people are just hung up over her body fat %. What about the big girls but that have a lower bf% then her?

It’s a sport about lifting as much weight over head as possible. The winner lifts the most. This isn’t who has the most ripped body that can lift weights over head as well. As much as the bodybuilder wins on aesthetics and not how much he can Clean and Jerk!

Koing[/quote]

Being good at one thing isn’t enough to qualify anyone for the term athletic in my opinion. Freakin’ impressive, I’ll say that though.

It’s not her bedyfat% for me actually. I’ve seen a girl her size (almost, anyways), who was strong and could lift quite heavy, but she was also able to do more, like a basic roll, climb a rope, and more. She was athletic. But I’ve not seen enough of the woman in that video to tell if she’s athletic or not.

Which is why I also don’t necessarily classify bodybuilders as athletic. It’s impressive. They may be athletic, though I doubt it as most of them are, as a lot of them are so tight they’d pull a muscle just by sneezing.

[quote]Koing wrote:
So by your definition you woudln’t call a fat (+25% super heavy class) wrestler athletic?
[/quote]

That would also depend on the wrestler. I’ve seen some of the super heavies of WWF/E do some pretty impressive things, but I’ve also seen some who didn’t do jack shit except “knee to stomach, chokeslam, fin.”

This is all just my opinion though, like I said.

[quote]Koing wrote:
The dicionary definition of athletic

  1. physically active and strong; good at athletics or sports: an athletic child.
  2. of, like, or befitting an athlete.
  3. of or pertaining to athletes; involving the use of physical skills or capabilities, as strength, agility, or stamina: athletic sports; athletic training.
  4. for athletics: an athletic field.
  5. Psychology. (of a physical type) having a sturdy build or well-proportioned body structure. Compare asthenic (def. 2), pyknic (def. 1).

1: check
2: befitting of an athlete? Well she is carrying a higher bf% then the people’s definition here
3: check
4: n/a
5: she has big legs but also a bit stomach…

The thing with a definition is, it’s pretty useless unless people use the ‘same’ definition otherwise it makes no sense. You can’t have people call some arbitary word this, and others to agree it means something else.

So by your definition you woudln’t call a fat (+25% super heavy class) wrestler athletic?

She’s athletic but she could stand to lose 20-30kg?

Koing

PS some solid lifts![/quote]

The point he was trying to make is, that while she is an athlete, being able to perform at a high level in 1 (or in this case, 2) very specialized “pet” lifts does not necessarily make a person athletic.
If I can use myself as an example, my primary sport is rowing. This summer in the middle of my training cycle, I was fan-freaking-tastic at rowing. Great work capacity, tons of speed, power, etc. I can sit at VO2 max for 5 minutes and still keep going.
However, I’ll be damned if I could run around the block without getting gassed and cramping up. Or do more than 30 pushups, or do something as simple as play frisbee without dropping the damn thing every single toss. I had tons of fitness, but it was all too specialized to be of any real use outside a boat.

So in the context of this discussion, am I an athlete? Certainly. Was I athletic? Well…no not really.

Is this still going on?

Sumo Wrestlers are athlete’s. I’ve seen some disgusting looking Football players. Butterbean is an athlete competing in boxing and MMA

I think the OP is mad because she is a stronger lifter than he…

Well I wouldn’t fight her and that’s saying a lot lol

[quote]Enigman wrote:
Weightlifters come in different shapes and sizes.

Anyway, here is one hot female lifter.

WOW… I didn’t realize how fucking sexy seeing a woman front squat is.
What’s with her legs shaking like that though? (I know next to nothing about o-lifting inform me)

[quote]justkevin wrote:
Koing wrote:
The dicionary definition of athletic

  1. physically active and strong; good at athletics or sports: an athletic child.
  2. of, like, or befitting an athlete.
  3. of or pertaining to athletes; involving the use of physical skills or capabilities, as strength, agility, or stamina: athletic sports; athletic training.
  4. for athletics: an athletic field.
  5. Psychology. (of a physical type) having a sturdy build or well-proportioned body structure. Compare asthenic (def. 2), pyknic (def. 1).

1: check
2: befitting of an athlete? Well she is carrying a higher bf% then the people’s definition here
3: check
4: n/a
5: she has big legs but also a bit stomach…

The thing with a definition is, it’s pretty useless unless people use the ‘same’ definition otherwise it makes no sense. You can’t have people call some arbitary word this, and others to agree it means something else.

So by your definition you woudln’t call a fat (+25% super heavy class) wrestler athletic?

She’s athletic but she could stand to lose 20-30kg?

Koing

PS some solid lifts!

The point he was trying to make is, that while she is an athlete, being able to perform at a high level in 1 (or in this case, 2) very specialized “pet” lifts does not necessarily make a person athletic.
If I can use myself as an example, my primary sport is rowing. This summer in the middle of my training cycle, I was fan-freaking-tastic at rowing. Great work capacity, tons of speed, power, etc. I can sit at VO2 max for 5 minutes and still keep going.
However, I’ll be damned if I could run around the block without getting gassed and cramping up. Or do more than 30 pushups, or do something as simple as play frisbee without dropping the damn thing every single toss. I had tons of fitness, but it was all too specialized to be of any real use outside a boat.

So in the context of this discussion, am I an athlete? Certainly. Was I athletic? Well…no not really. [/quote]

So what your saying is you suck and need to do CrossFit? j/k

You can’t have your ‘own’ definition of words, otherwise nothing would make real sense.

A person couldn’t call a Hang Clean a Clean or Power Clean etc.

This whole arguement is pretty much BS and no one is going to change their minds.

So we’re saying a world class sprinter isn’t athletic because he his too specialised and can’t climb a rope?

I bet she can jump well and sprint well for 40m also. Admittedly not as well as say the smaller women and up to the 75kg class women due to her weight but she would sure as hell be decent enough.

What about Shane Hammon? His bf% isn’t low and he is seemingly out of shape? You guys do know that at 5’10 and 150kg or so he can SLAM DUNK.

I think this is just getting silly when you have your own definitions for words that are in a dictionary.

Koing

This wasn’t directed at me, but I’m going to comment on it anyways.

[quote]Koing wrote:
So what your saying is you suck and need to do CrossFit? j/k

You can’t have your ‘own’ definition of words, otherwise nothing would make real sense.
[/quote]

I don’t think it’s a matter of having one’s “own” definition of words as much as it is a matter of public perception. Lots of people wouldn’t call a fat person athletic no matter what they could do, even if you shoved that definition down their throats.

[quote]Koing wrote:
A person couldn’t call a Hang Clean a Clean or Power Clean etc.

This whole arguement is pretty much BS and no one is going to change their minds.
[/quote]

Well, if you’re saying the arguments against you are BS I’d have to disagree, although I am fast growing tired of arguing this point, largely because it does seem like nobody’s going to change their minds here.

[quote]Koing wrote:
So we’re saying a world class sprinter isn’t athletic because he his too specialised and can’t climb a rope?
[/quote]

I think a world class sprinter is athletic, and I think most people would look at a sprinter and agree that he/she is/looks athletic. But the definition you posted has got me thinking about what I thought athletic meant vs what it’s supposed to mean, so what I term “athletic” will probably start differing from what I believe the masses call “athletic.”

[quote]Koing wrote:
I bet she can jump well and sprint well for 40m also. Admittedly not as well as say the smaller women and up to the 75kg class women due to her weight but she would sure as hell be decent enough.
[/quote]

Complete speculation. Shouldn’t matter anyways, because based on your definition of athletic she doesn’t need to run and jump to be athletic, just be good at her sport, and most people wouldn’t call her athletic no matter how high she jumped or fast she ran 40m because she’s fat. And I’d just call her an athlete and leave it at that.

[quote]Koing wrote:
What about Shane Hammon? His bf% isn’t low and he is seemingly out of shape? You guys do know that at 5’10 and 150kg or so he can SLAM DUNK.
[/quote]

Yes, he LOOKS out of shape, but he’s a helluva athlete. But I’d be willing to bet that if you showed people who didn’t know who he was a picture of him, they’d say he wasn’t athletic and just a fatass, regardless of how awesome an athlete he is. But looking at a picture of someone and trying to judge anything about their physical attributes other than their aesthetic appearance is basically judging a book by it’s cover.

[quote]Koing wrote:
I think this is just getting silly when you have your own definitions for words that are in a dictionary.

Koing[/quote]

I have conceded that what I thought athletic meant is something different from how it’s defined, but I maintain that most people would have a tough time calling anyone they thought was fat athletic. Just look at how many people think NFL linemen are just big fat guys.

And so the saying goes again…

Opinions are like assholes.
Everyone has one.

Let’s stop wasting time on this thread.

[quote]I don’t think it’s a matter of having one’s “own” definition of words as much as it is a matter of public perception. Lots of people wouldn’t call a fat person athletic no matter what they could do, even if you shoved that definition down their throats.
[/quote]

I’d agree that most people wouldn’t call a fat person athletic even if they could run a sick 40m time, dunk a bball or climb a rope like a monkey. But I’m willing to bet a lot of people would change their minds though if they saw said fat person do the above and other athletic activities.

I suppose the only agruement is that it’s based on looks and not what she can actually do. T his would be no different then if we had a picture of shane hammon

The sprinter is only by the way the person looks. A person that looks athletic could easily not be all that athletic imo. Or rather no where near as athletic as another type of person.

Well yeah it’s complete speculation on my part but I’m willing to bet she can jump fairly well and sprint a 20-40m well. This is a natural trait of a good OLifter purely by the type of training they do. It’s like speculating a Gymnast would have ‘all around’ good balance. It’s purely their experience and training.

I would agree that some people may not call her athletic purely based on looks but by the definition she is athletic. Why would a person need to be good at other stuff to be classified as athletic? Makes no sense to me.

Yeah it’s people judging a book by it’s cover.

A lot of the general public are stuuupid relative to training/ sport/ athleticism.

Koing

While everyone was yelling at eachother about “what qualifies as an athlete” no one posted a vid of this lady?

Clean

Jenna bussard - YouTube

Snatch
Jenna Bussard 95 kg Snatch - YouTube

I truly am surprised that she doesnt catch her tummy when she pulls

Is it safe to say that she’s the only one in her weight class?
I mean I can see how she would be so successful if she is the only SHW or w/e weightclass they have like that in O-lifting.
Respsectable #'s though, however I think if she lost some fat and then tried gaining muscle she would be stronger. She just looks really really fat.

wow…that snatch looked easy for her

Give her some credit. At least she is using her weight to her advantage in a sport surely geared for her. Approximately 35% of the american population is walking around with that kind of weight and the only thing they are lifting is a cheese steak sub and a diet soda! So, she gets a big-up from me because she may not look like the preconceived image of an athlete but she sure is lifting like one. Oh, and by the way if I am not mistaken that’s probably 120 kilos (264 lbs.) she is lifting over head in front of an audience and her peers. Can you do better :slight_smile:

Yes that is in kilos so shes lifting a lot, but elite female oly lifters do much more impressive weights than that. and there is not a super heavyweight class in olympic lifting. the heaviest is 75 kg +. Jang Mi-ran holds the heavyweight record at 140 kg snatch (308 lbs) and a clean & jerk at 186(410 lbs)

You have to take in account her training age, years of competition, and her actual biological age. It wouldn’t surprise me if she was between 14 and seventeen years old.

[quote]FightorFlight wrote:
Yes that is in kilos so shes lifting a lot, but elite female oly lifters do much more impressive weights than that. and there is not a super heavyweight class in olympic lifting. the heaviest is 75 kg +. Jang Mi-ran holds the heavyweight record at 140 kg snatch (308 lbs) and a clean & jerk at 186(410 lbs) [/quote]

75+ IS the superheavyweight class for women, just like 105+ is the superheavyweight class for men.

On a side note, Jang Mi-ran beat out the silver medallist at Beijing by 49kg in the total weighing roughly 50kg less. Fucking impressive.

[quote]TheJonty wrote:
I think the vast majority of people (myself included) use the term “athletic” to describe people who are relatively lean (or not just a tub of lard) and capable of performing in a variety of sports to some degree, i.e. they can run, jump, have some level of strength, etc etc (this part of the definition probably varies from person to person). So, in that regard, is clean and jerking 120kg athletic? Not necessarily. Strong? Yes. Impressive? Absolutely. But not necessarily athletic. But regardless of whether or not you feel she’s “athletic,” I think we all agree that she’s an athlete, as she trains and competes at a high level in a physical performance-based sport.
[/quote]

Based on this definition of athletic, a lot of elite athletes would not meet this definition. Didn’t Poliquin write something about elite swimmers scoring extremely low on tests of balance? Not just low compared to other elite athletes, but low compared to the average person on the street. And I’ve heard rumors that the elite Kenyan marathoners have difficulty jumping onto an 18" box, and some can’t even do it. Dan John recently had an article where he wrote that if you can throw the shot 70’, you are the world’s best shotputter. No one cares if you can barely get up from you chair. The bottom line is that specialization has its price.

Having said that, I also view the term “athletic” as meaning that a person is reasonably proficient in several athletic skills. Not all athletes are necessarily athletic. But the opposite is true - not all athletic people can become great athletes because, while they may have several athletic skills, they’re not great in any one skill.

[quote]Game Time wrote:
I thought that title would grab some attention :smiley:

I would call 99.9% of Oly Lifters very athletic…I would argue this girl is the .1% exception.

What do you think?

Her name is Jenna Bussard
At the 2009 USA champs she weighted in at 169kg (371.8 lbs)[/quote]

The fat on her legs tells me something is wrong with her thyroid… but thats just me.