Weightlifting is anticipated to lose a generational expertise earlier than the following Olympics. Who’s up subsequent?
Final up to date on November twelfth, 2024
Lasha Talakhadze is usually considered one of many best weightlifters of all time — he’s unequivocally the strongest, having lifted extra weight within the snatch and clear & jerk, the game’s two aggressive disciplines, than any human being dwelling or useless.
- The heaviest break up jerk caught on digicam is 270 kilograms. Talakhadze broke that floor in 2021.
Flash ahead to late 2024, and (nearly) nothing has modified. Talakhadze received the 2024 Olympics, earned his third gold medal, and maintained his decade-plus undefeated file in weightlifting. Afterward, Talakhadze was broadly anticipated to retire. As of Nov. 2024, it’s a “possibly.”
However a handful of his opponents are sizzling on his heels, they usually’re beginning with some 270-kilogram jerks of their very own.
The Subsequent Lasha Talakhadze & 270-Kilogram Jerks
On Nov. 9, 2024, Armenian weightlifter Varazdat Lalayan posted a video to social media by which he efficiently jerks 270 kilograms, or 595.2 kilos, out of the rack. Lalayan is the newest to throw his hat within the jerk ring and has given Talakhadze grief at weightlifting meets for the final two years.
One large factor: Talakhadze has clear & jerked 270 kilograms. Lalayan and the opposite athletes who’ve held the identical weight overhead did so with out performing the clean.
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Let’s check out Lalayan and the opposite weightlifters who’ve jerked 270 kilograms in 2024 to find out who may be able to dislodging Talakhadze from the file books.
Varazdat Lalayan (Armenia)
At simply 25, Lalayan is the youngest super-heavyweight athlete to pose an actual menace to Talakhadze, 31, in recent times. He’s additionally not missed the weightlifting podium since 2018 and nearly all the time locations second behind the Georgian.
The actual case for Lalayan assuming the throne rests upon his regular climb within the weightlifting Whole as he’s matured as a competitor. Listed here are Lalayan’s finest Totals from every year for the final 5 years:
- 2024: 467
- 2023: 462
- 2022: 461
- 2021: 457
- 2019: 424
The incremental however regular progress of his Whole, plus a current exhibition of his overhead energy within the jerk, are bullish indicators for Lalayan in a post-Talakhadze weightlifting market. Nonetheless, he’s not the one tremendous to place 5 purple bumper plates overhead in 2024.
Alireza Yousefi (Iran)
In October 2024, Iranian weightlifter Alireza Yousefi jerked 270 kilograms out of the rack. Yousefi is 21 years outdated; when Talakhadze was 21 a decade prior, his finest competitors clear & jerk was within the 240 to 250-kilogram vary (Talakhadze was serving a performance-enhancing drug suspension in 2014 and didn’t compete).
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For those who appeared solely at their age-equivocated strength within the break up jerk, Yousefi would seem far forward of Talakhadze’s trajectory. Nonetheless, Yousefi has but to finish a snatch in competitors above 190 kilograms.
Talakhadze, at roughly the identical age, snatched 207 in 2015. When Lalayan was 21, he snatched 205. Regardless of his extraordinary overhead sport, Yousefi lags behind his colleagues in snatch prowess.
Simon Martirosyan (Armenia)
Armenia’s former-heavyweight Simon Martirosyan jerked 270 kilograms on the tail finish of 2023, so it’s price looking at his resume within the super-heavyweight division. Martirosyan, 27, is a two-time Olympic silver medalist whose world file within the Whole at 109 kilograms, set in 2018, nonetheless stands.
- After the 109s have been left off the proposed Olympic docket for Paris 2024, Martirosyan opted to bulk as much as the supers quite than minimize weight and compete within the 102-kilogram class.
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He’s fared properly, although Martirosyan has but to win a world gold medal in weightlifting’s uncapped males’s division. The Armenian managed a career-best complete of 450 kilograms on the 2023 World Weightlifting Championships, however extreme energy within the break up jerk doubtless isn’t sufficient to hold Martirosyan to the highest of the +109-kilogram podium.
Extra Weightlifting Information
Featured Picture: @weightlifting_house / Instagram