Topic: News: 2008 Olympics News

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Natalie Woolfolk uses strong back at Beijing Olympics

Arnold, Md. (Map, News) - Natalie Woolfolk's journey to the Beijing Olympics began in the garage of her father's home.

A growth spurt had ended the Arnold resident's gymnastics career, and her father, Kirk Woolfolk, wanted her to try weightlifting so she'd have something new to do. Woolfolk, though, said she didn't think she'd be any good at it. She turned out to be very, very wrong.

Woolfolk, the head strength and conditioning coach at the Naval Academy, said his daughter picked the sport up really, really fast.

"I didn't know she'd be an Olympian, but it was pretty obvious she'd be good at it," he said.

Woolfolk was a freshman at Broadneck High School at the time, he said, and by her senior year, she was already at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

"Before I knew it, I was making international teams and realized what I had the potential to do," she said.

Woolfolk, 24, said trained with the U.S. team at Beijing Normal University.

"It's quiet and away from the chaos," she said in an interview with The (Annapolis) Capital the week she arrived. "The U.S. training facility, it keeps me sane and not too nervous about competing."

On Aug. 12, Woolfolk competed in the 63-kilogram (139-pound) weight class in both the snatch and clean and jerk. The snatch is just what it sounds like: snatching weights off the ground and lifting them overhead in one continuous motion. In the clean and jerk, the lifter first takes the bar to the top of the chest, then pushes it overhead.

She finished 12th with a combined score of 211 after lifting 97 kilogram in the snatch and 114 kilogram in the clean and jerk; the event's winner, Hyon Suk Pak, scored 241 after lifting 106 kilogram in the snatch and 135 kilogram in the clean and jerk.

Woolfolk's first chance to rank herself among the best in the world came at the 2007 World Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Placing seventh in Thailand, Woolfolk returned home in late September with the realization that she could vie for a spot on this year's Olympic squad.

The 5-foot-3-inch, 135-pounder came away with the confidence that her rhythm, form and technique were good enough to challenge the most dominant weightlifters in the world.

Woolfolk's father, mother and stepfather are also in Beijing, and her fiance, Casey Burgener, is there. He's a weightlifter, too.

"She has made it to the pinnacle of her sport," her father said. "It's a great honor. I think it finally set in in May, when the flag was draped around her shoulders."

Her plans after competing aren't completely set, but she does want to do some European travel with Burgener before moving on to a job as a strength coach at the University of San Diego. She hopes to visit the Annapolis area for Christmas.

As for weightlifting, she wants to take a bit of time off after Beijing, and then re-evaluate her competitive career.

"I'll take it day by day," she said, quickly adding, "I love the sport."

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Matthias Steiner
By Sophie Hardach

After covering 14 Olympic weightlifting competitions, I sat down for the super-heavyweight contest knowing that it would be the most spectacular of them all. In the previous contests, I had seen hulking strongmen in tears, had watched lifters crash to the floor under the barbell, had heard caveman howls and primal screams.

Now all that macho breast-beating would reach a climax, with 150kg-contenders trying to snatch more than 200kg. What I did not expect to see in that testosterone-filled competition hall was a moment of heart-breaking tenderness.

I had heard the story of 25-year-old German lifter Matthias Steiner, whose wife, Susann, died after a car crash last year, and my heart went out to him as I watched him fail not just one but two attempts.

I had read that he carried a photo of Susann with him at every competition, and had promised her in hospital that he would make their joint Olympic dream come true. But after the snatch and another failed attempt in the clean and jerk, it looked as if he would not even win a medal.

I wrote up a short story just in case, thinking that his moving story might interest my editors even if he ended up fourth or fifth. Then I gave the editing desk a heads-up on the likely ranking: Russian Evgeny Chigishev gold, Latvian Viktors Scerbatihs silver … and maybe, just maybe, bronze for my own country, Germany.

Suddenly, Steiner raised his weight by 10kg. Weightlifters usually move up in steps of 2kg, sometimes 4kg or 6kg. After two failed attempts, this looked like a desperate lunge for a medal by a man who was clearly unable to lift the targeted weight. I was sure he would fail, and yet, as he lifted the barbell, I found myself forgetting my journalistic impartiality, thinking only: come on, you can do it, pleeease…

He did it. Groaning and yelling, he lifted 258kg, his personal best. “Matthias Steiner gold, Chigishev silver, Scerbatihs bronze,” I shouted into my phone. I then hugged the bewildered Reuters colleague next to me before furiously typing up the story.

I only looked up again when the German anthem played. Steiner was standing on the podium, a bear of a man choking back the tears, clutching a bouquet and his medal. Then someone handed him another object.

He held it up and kissed it, a look of incredible pain mixed with happiness on his face. I gasped when I recognised what it was — a photo of a young, pretty blonde with a carefree smile.