Lately, due mainly to the London Olympic games, one of my friends here in Kawerau and I have been having even longer chats than usual about weightlifting. Ron Campbell owns and operates a fitness gym in the centre of town, and he has an extensive background in weightlifting as well as in weight-training. We often chat in his gym,or in the nearby Bakehouse, or at his or my home, and the talk always seems to turn to weightlifting history.

Today, we were remembering the greatness of Paul Anderson, the American heavyweight and superheavywight lifter of the fifties. I started using weights when I was 14, in Scotland, in 1955. As I learned more and more about the world of weightlifting, even starting and running a weightlifting club while I was still at secondary school, my heroes were Phil Caira of Scotland, and Paul Anderson and Tommy Kono, both Americans.

Owing to our current interest in the weightlifting at the London Olympics, we soon were talking about Paul Anderson's success at the 1956 Olympics held in Melbourne, Australia. I remember reading the details of the event, given individual lift by individual lift in the British magazine "Health and Strength", and I only wish I could find a copy of that to quote here, to relive the drama of the close match between Anderson and The Argentine Humberto Selvetti.. Sadly, I could not find one anywhere, so I can give you only the following facts, and some photos of Anderson, not all taken at the 1956 Olympics.

Anderson weighed in at 137.9 kgs. (304 lbs.). There were three Olympics in those days, and his final successful lifts in the Three and the total were -

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Clean and Press          167.5 kgs.  (368.5 lbs.)

Snatch                          145 kgs.     (319 lbs.)

Clean and Jerk             187.5 kgs.  (412.5 lbs)

Total                              500 kgs.     (1100 lbs.)

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Selvetti also totalled 500 kgs. Under the rules, whenever there is a tie in the totals lifted, the lifter with the lighter bodyweight is the winner. Selvetti's bodyweight was 143.5 kgs. (316 lbs.). Anderson was 5.6 Kgs. (12 lbs.) lighter, thus he won the gold medal.

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More photos on next page.