Ageless Champion Fred Lowe (USA)
The Weightlifting History in Color cover photo features the clean-and-jerk lift by Fred Lowe, one of the most impressive U.S. middleweight.
Frederick “Fred” Lowe (b. 1947) was a 3-x U.S. Olympian. He competed at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City (1968, 8th), Munich (1972, 9th) and Montreal (1976, 11th). Lowe was also selected to represent the United States at the World Championships in 1969, 1970, 1973, 1981.
Fred Lowe won gold medals at 8 Senior National Championships (1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1981) and set numerous national records. During his outstanding career as an athlete, Fred Lowe competed for the Duncan YMCA (Chicago, IL) and York Barbell Club (York, PA) and appeared in 16 U.S. National Championships (1968-1976, 1980-1981, 1997-2000, 2011).
Besides his solid career stats, Fred Lowe was a brilliant weightlifting technician (especially, in the clean-and-jerk program). Those who actually studied the techniques and competed on the Olympic weightlifting platform might really appreciate sharp clean-and-jerk lifting by Fred Lowe. It’s almost a textbook positioning and angles demonstrated on the athlete’s best results. Just beautiful and highly enjoyable!
Arthur – thank you for the kind words. It is always nice to be appreciated for your accomplishments in this endeavor by those with knowledge of the sport. I am blessed to now be able to be an educator for those aspiring to learn the movements of this discipline. Again, many thanks to you and your efforts to educate those coming into the sport as to what came before.
Hi, Fred! I am honored to hear your comment. I used to look at your lifting photos for hours. So precise and beautiful and sharp! Now it’s my time to share with the others – there is no present without the past and there is no future without the present. It’s all connected. It’s all a big picture of the best sports ever.
Great photo and great lifter. Even more amazing is his near miss with the world record C&J in 1968…184kg. Successful clean but a missed jerk. The only lifter who came near Viktor Kurentsov’s record at that time.
A while ago great U.S. super heavyweight Joe Dube referred to Fred Lowe as a “Little Bear”. Was it Fred’s nickname?
Not quite. Fred was known as `Sugar Bear` due to his vague resemblance to a stocky cartoon bear used on Post Sugar Crisp cereal boxes.
Thank you, Dresdin! I didn’t know where this line about Fred was coming from…