Topic: Weightlifting In Australia

[Dean Redzic]

Just out of curiosity, you are from Australia, correct? Do you have similar forums such as this (or goheavy/mikesgym) in Australia? And if so, do you find the comments, inquiries, etc, etc, more or less the same as ours.
Give us a look into Australian weightlifting, if you please.

thanks steve,

Yes i am from Australia. There are little forums here and there, with not much info on them. The reason i go on this forum and goheavy, is because of Glenn and you yourself. if the turks, bulgarians, russians had a message board that i could read i would be on there too. I just like collecting as much info as i can.

As far as im concerned weightlifting isnt counted as a viable sport in Australia.Where i live it is a disgrace, but i have commitments here that i cannot leave just yet. The population is  322,000 and its the capital of Australia that houses the parliment. There is only one gym where we can train. It is a small side room of a gym at a University. There is one platform that is falling apart, and one that is just wood and two pieces of rubber thrown on top. The plates are awesome, but the bars are quite bad, bent and rusted, i think some of them are actually factory seconds. We cant get any new members because the university wont let people just join that room (we call the weightlifting club). its a catch 22 situation that is becoming hard because we cant raise enough money and no one is supporting us and we are not allowed to get new members (not that anyone is knocking on the door).

there is a world class facitilty (the Australian instute of sport) around the corner, who doesnt want much to do with us. Even the acadamy of sport wouldnt accept a kid who came sixth in australia to join their training facility (even though they have runners and jumpers ranking 10th).

I was watching videos at the sports commision the other day, of competitions on national TV about 10-15 years ago. Now all they show on national TV is racing, Rugby, cricket etc. Athens olympics had about 1 hour of weightlifting shown, of all divisions and both sexs. I think its sad.

Things are a little bit better in other states. In NSW sydney they have a cool training centre with many platforms, but i have never seen anyone training ( i was there to compete), i tried talking to people, but was shrugged off.

 it appears that our best lifters have been brought in from overseas, and they are given better funding than other weightlifters born in australia (much like stefan botev was)

The training programs by coaches in australia i have seen look like they have been lifted from the american weightlifting coaching manual (similar methods and planing).

for your own intrest here is the ranking from last year.
http://www.qwa.org/liftstats/oldrankings/rankings04.ASP

we lift quite well in the commonwealth games but thats about it.

I am still new to weightlifting so i havent seen the rest of australia yet.

i hope i have answered your question. if you have any more left me know
dean

[Steve Gough]

Dean,

Thanks for the response. I do not think we get too much input from outside of our borders (excepting Canada) save for a few occasional readers/posters adding richly to our brew. I am glad that you have posted here, who  knows where this may lead.

I would think that Botev and Blagoev, Sarkisian, etal, would be helping their adopted country. After all Australia has done far more for them they for Australia... lest we forget Galipoli some 90 odd years ago when the Turks were the common enemy of the Armenians and the Bulgars. But, then again if your coaches are following American methods, then maybe they don't want to listen to former weightlifting greats.

In any event, welcome. Glad to help.

Steve

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

For anyone interested in weightlifting in Australia, there is a new and really cool forum for the Phoenix Weightlifting Club (located in Australia).

Phoenix Weightlifting Club Forum Link