Olympic Team USA Weightlifting in Berlin,1936
July 1936 – U.S. weightlifters, coaches and administrators have arrived to Berlin for the 1936 Summer Olympics (left to right):
Front row (sitting):
Walter Good (75kg, 14th), Tony Terlazzo (60kg, 1st/Gold), John Terry (60kg, 7th), Bob Mitchell (67.5kg, 8th), John Grimek (82.5+kg, 9th);
Top row (standing):
Dietrich Wortmann (AAU national weightlifting chairman), Joe Miller (82.5kg, 9th), Bill Good (82.5kg, 7th), Dave Mayor (82.5+ kg, 12th), Stanley Kratkowski (75kg, 5th), John Terpak (67.5, 5th).
Note: Including athletes’ weight class and final placings at the 1936 Summer Olympics tournament
Obviously, the heroic performance of Jesse Owens in Berlin was one of the greatest moments of the Olympics in Berlin and in the history of sports overall. Other U.S. athletes demonstrated superb results in 1936 too.
One of them was a weightlifter Tony Terlazzo who became the first 1936 Olympic champion in weightlifting in Berlin. Terlazzo won with the 312.5kg total in the 60kg class.
The weightlifting contests took place in the Deutschland halle in front of over 8,000 fans. Team USA was just beginning its path to success in weightlifting and gold medal won by Tony Terlazzo was a huge boost for upcoming development of world class athletes.
Overall, in the unofficial team competition between the weightlifting countries, Team USA took the third place with Egypt as No.1 and Germany as No.2.
After the tournament, the International Weightlifting Federation published the Top 5 Best athletes list.
Khadr El Touni of Egypt was announced as top lifter .
25-year old Tony Terlazzo of Team USA became an overall No. 2 in the World!
