Originally Posted by
hatmanii
I don't think so. He's stating that you can't claim "all things being equal, strength makes the better athlete." Well, in this case you can.
We are talking about US Olympic weightlifting. More specifically those athletes training at the OTC where they can eat, sleep and train 24/7. So we are speaking about athletes with elite genetics (they wouldn't be at the OTC without them) who live to eat and train. The same situation occurs in all other countries with Olympic weightlifters.
So, all the athletes entering the Olympics for their respective countries have the same base from which to compete from. So with all of these things being equal, what is the qualifier that makes US Weightlifting the laughingstock of the international weightlifting scene?
It's the way in which they go about training.