Forgotten Tournament of 1967
In 1967, the International Weightlifting Federation didn’t run the World Championship. It does look odd for those who like a consistent flow of events in the history books.
The 1966 World Championship was held in East Berlin and then the events record goes directly to the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City with a one year blank in between. The 1967 World Championship was actually scheduled to be conducted in Japan. However, Japan didn’t have diplomatic relationship with East Germany and the athletes of the GDR team didn’t get visas to enter Japan. The Soviet and Eastern block weightlifting teams showed solidarity with East Germany and boycotted the tournament.
The 1967 World Championship was cancelled. Instead the top lifters gathered in the Mexico City and competed at the 1967 Pre-Olympics tournament . It was nick-named Little Olympics.
The 1967 Little Olympics was marked with 8 world records and outstanding performance by the elite of the weightlifting world at the time.
| Weight | Class | Name | Total (kg) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 56 | Bantamweight |  |
Mohammad NASSIRI, Iran | 360 |
| 60 | Featherweight |  |
Yoshinobu MIYAKE, Japan | 392.5 |
| 67.5 | Lightweight |  |
Waldemar BASZANOWSKI, Poland | 440wr |
| 75 | Middleweight |  |
Viktor KURENTSOV, Soviet Union | 470wr |
| 82.5 | Light Heavyweight | |
Norbert OZIMEK, Poland | 475 |
| 90 | Middle Heavyweight | |
Jaan TALTS, Soviet Union | 492.5 |
| 90+ | Super Heavyweight | |
Stanislav BATISHCHEV, Soviet Union | 550 |
Note: To view a complete list of the winners in the weight classes above, please follow the link associated with the weight class.
Complete information at the 1967 Little Olympics @ Lift Up
It is happening again after exactly 50 years!
2017 World Championship is in Anaheim and US already banned visa to citizens of seven countries (even Green Card holders). I have a feeling this year event will be canceled.
I think politics shouldn’t interfere with sports and the other way around…
I am sure that there will be, at least exemptions, made for athletes coming to compete in sports tournaments in America. From what I understand the US Weightlifting will work towards this.