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olympics + (4)

Before the rise in popularity of the bench press as the de facto test of upper body strength, the overhead press was king. However, the press began to fall out of favor in the 1970s. Legendary strength coach Bill Starr provides a history of the lift and offers a number of suggestions for strengthening it. Until 1972, the clean and press was one of the three contested lifts in Olympic weightlifting. It was dropped from competition in part because of the dynamic style some lifters developed for the press, which was said to make judging the lift difficult. Bill Starr explains how to perform the technical Olympic-style press, and veteran lifter Tommy Suggs coaches it in a three-part video series (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).
posted by Anatoly Pisarenko on Jan 16, 2011 - 46 comments

19-year-old weightlifter Pat Mendes of Nevada snatches 200kg. Mendes is the only American to ever snatch 200kg, and is within 16kg of the world record. [more inside]
posted by ludwig_van on Apr 23, 2010 - 83 comments

Pierre de Coubertin is well-known as the father of the modern Olympics. What is less well-known is that he pseudonymously won an Olympic medal - in poetry (PDF) [more inside]
posted by Dim Siawns on Mar 14, 2010 - 5 comments

What do the Olympic finishing times sound like? It's sometimes hard to grasp the significance of the times or how close it was just by the numbers or even the photo finishes. [more inside]
posted by kch on Mar 1, 2010 - 35 comments

Video evidence of Slovakia's 82-0 slaughter of Bulgaria in the women's ice hockey Olympic qualifier.
posted by chunking express on Sep 15, 2008 - 44 comments

The official mascots of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics were unveiled today. There are three: a sasquatch, a mythical sea-bear, and a thunderbird-bear spirit, all first-nations inspired. Here's the design firm's website. Previous olympic mascots: Beijing 2008, others.
posted by PercussivePaul on Nov 27, 2007 - 86 comments

The British Olympic Committee unveiled the logo and branding for London 2012 today, at a cost of £400,000 (USD796,000). Reaction has been swift - a petition to change the logo or go back to the old one has already reached 10,000 signatures.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 on Jun 4, 2007 - 149 comments

BOCOG announced their official Olympic mascots recently. One of them is based on the Tibetan Antelope. Students for a Free Tibet don't like the idea.
posted by tellurian on Nov 14, 2005 - 56 comments

Not letting people take in the wrong soft drink. Making a band change its name. 'The new bill will make it illegal to combine words like "games", "medals", "gold", "2012", "sponsor" or "summer" in any form of advertising.' I'm kind of starting to hate the olympics.
posted by Tlogmer on Aug 16, 2005 - 49 comments

The unsinkable Molly Brown Violet Jessop survived three White Star fleet shipwrecks. She was a stewardess onboard the RMS Titanic and RMS Olympic, and a nurses aid on the HMHS Britannic. Violet didn't even know how to swim when her lifeboat was shredded by the Britannic's massive propellers. This amazing woman went on to serve aboard the RMS Olympic after the war and is featured in more than one book.
posted by rogue on Dec 22, 2002 - 1 comment

The US Bobsled Team has a very good chance to win an Olympic medal in 2002 for the first time since 1956, thanks to a strong group of people, and a bobsled designed by an unlikely person: NASCAR driver Geoff Bodine. Yeehawwww!!! (quicktime)
posted by machaus on Nov 28, 2001 - 10 comments