Is Rizki Juniansyah Weightlifting’s Largest Jerk?

On the highest ranges of competitors, jerking separates the most effective athletes from the pack.

Final up to date on November fifth, 2024

In April, Rizki Juniansyah made an enormous splash within the weightlifting world when he sniped one in every of Indonesia’s athlete slots from teammate Rahmat Erwin Abdullah. Juniansyah went on to win the 73-kilogram occasion on the 2024 Olympics. 

• It’s typically stated that efficiency within the clean & jerk, one in every of weightlifting’s two aggressive disciplines, wins or loses meets. Primarily based on recently-released footage, Juniansyah is the second-best middleweight jerker in historical past. 

Within the months main as much as the Paris Video games, Juniansyah jerked 217 kilograms, or 478.4 kilos, off blocks — a sliver below thrice his personal physique weight. Just one weightlifter, ever, has finished higher. 

Rizki Juniansyah: The Finest Jerker in Weightlifting? 

Footage of Juniansyah’s carry hit social media on Oct. 30, 2024. In keeping with supply and pal of BarBend @VintageLifts, Juniansyah’s 217 was the second-heaviest jerk ever made by any middleweight weightlifting athlete in historical past.

• In 1987, Bulgarian weightlifter Alexander Varbanov reportedly clear & jerked 222 kilograms whereas coaching for that yr’s World Weightlifting Championships (Varbanov would get second place). He competed within the 75-kilogram class, making his carry the heaviest recorded jerk by an athlete within the sport’s center classes.

As of Nov. 2024, the 73-kilogram clear & jerk world file is a mighty 204 kilograms. It belongs to Abdullah, whom Juniansyah dislodged from his Paris trajectory in an upset on the IWF World Cup. 

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In Context: Just one athlete per class, per nation, was allowed to carry on the 2024 Olympics. All through the 18-month qualification interval, Abdullah was within the driver’s seat. Due to his spectacular overhead power, Juniansyah out-lifted his countryman on the final weightlifting meet of the qualification cycle. 

This isn’t the primary time a middleweight weightlifting athlete achieved greatness because of a surplus of power within the cut up jerk. Through the Males’s 77-kilogram closing on the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Kazakh weightlifter Nijat Rahimov leapfrogged gold-medal favourite Lu Xiaojun. 

Xiaojun completed his clear & jerks with 202 kilograms — coupled together with his 177-kilogram snatch, Rahimov wanted to leap from his personal 202 try and 214 to out-Whole Lu. Due to unbelievable power within the cut up jerk, he made the carry by the pores and skin of his tooth. 

• Rahimov forfeited his medal in 2022 after failing a doping check. Silver medalist Lu and bronzer Mohamed Ehab had been additionally “popped” for performance-enhancing medicine years later. As of 2024, the International Olympic Committee has not redistributed the 77-kilogram medals to different athletes. 

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In Context: The clear & jerk as it’s carried out in competitors isn’t the identical as hitting a cut up jerk in coaching. Juniansyah doubtless weighed greater than his class cap of 73 kilograms and didn’t need to take care of the pains of a contest atmosphere earlier than hitting his 217. There aren’t any medals in weightlifting solely for the cut up jerk.

On the 2024 Olympics, Juniansyah discovered himself in the same place; he was down by 10 kilograms within the snatches to Workforce China’s two-time Olympic Champion, Shi Zhiyong. Shi floundered within the jerks, however Juniansyah’s reservoir of power carried him to the highest of the rostrum.

After seeing Juniansyah jerk 217 — a snug 13-kilogram margin over his teammate’s world file — his triumph in Paris makes good sense. 

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