Actually, I doubt she is stronger than our top 5 men. Our current #1 ranked male, Jared Flemming, has squatted 250kg for a set of 3, and is just overall fairly strong. Plus he is part of Kyle Pierces crew, who definately emphasise strength quite a bit.Our #2 guy, Jon North (He and Jared have traded the top spot back and forth a bit), has cleaned 200kg and snatched 160 weighing below the 94kg limit, quite a ways above this girl. Rob Adell, who certainly figures into the top 5 has back squatted 300kg, thats with no belt or wraps, high bar... and cleaned 200kg. Again, she is nowhere near his strength numbers. Have you seen Phil Sabatini? He got 3rd at the American open and is probably one of the most muscularly large US lifters ever, hell bigger arms even than you saw in the steroid era. He works 70 hour weeks as a strength coach and this definately keeps his numbers down, but the guy is STRONG. We even have a 17 year old, Ian Wilson, who weighs in on this, he is probably #5 right now at 94kg... has clean and jerked over 400lbs as a 17 year old. Drop down the list a little, and you have Jared Enderton, who has MUSCLE SNATCHED 130kg (yes I said muscle snatch), Back aquatted 440lbs for a set of 20, and bench pressed 315lbs for a set of 20, so no lack of strength there I think... Then you have a certain young 94 up in Pittsburg who is trying to break into the top ranks who has only done 145/175 but regularly squats 250kg + for multiple sets of 5...
Now if you just meant is she stronger than the average US lifter, sure. But of course she is also stronger than the average lifter in Russian or Bulgaria, just as the worlds best female 100 meter sprinter is faster than the "average" male sprinter from any country, and the worlds best female marathon runner could beat 99.9 percent of men on the planet in the marathon. This would really have nothing to do with US weightlifting, it is just the nature of things, the worlds best female in any athletic pursuit is better than the average man.
Actually, our second best male 94kg lifter yesterday did a 155kg snatch, a total of about maybe 10-12 cleans with 175kg (6 of them are on video on the net, but he also did a heavy morning workout and you can see that several more attempts happened that arent on video) and cleaned but missed the jerk with 190kg. It is on video for anyone to see, ALL of it is on the web if you know where to look. In case you are interested, our #1 ranked lifter started a cycle of sets of 10 on the squat and sets of 5 on variations of the lifts, our #3 guy did lifts around 80% on both snatch, clean and jerk, and squats, Rob Adell is rehabbing a torn meniscus in his knee... etc, etc, etc. Enderton trained heavy and made a 142 snatch, etc.
But in the end, everyone is trying to get stronger, no one wants to get beat by a girl, and while I am sure that we are all impressed with this girls technical skills, we all know she is very strong.
It's not often Kevin Cornel Gets brought up (lifter from pittsburgh). He'd be a 94 Kg lifter if he would stop eating cake.
Good stuff, Big Dog. We have the Nationals and the Worlds coming up so hopefully our guys will live up to the hype. With the Olympics right around the corner, it will be a real shame if we have no slots in London. The purpose of me posting the Tatiana clip is to get our 94kg lifters in gear. Sadly, if this does not get them motivated nothing will. I would love nothing more then to see one of our athletes on the medal stand in London.
Last edited by Mark Rippetoe; 04-19-2011 at 03:51 PM.
What's her testosterone levels? She's a big lady.
Kevin get's a mention cause he is flexible, fast, and strong as hell. I know he likes the cake, lol. But seriously, he could be a real factor at 94kg with just a little push in the right direction. Too bad he doesn't listen to Regis any better than he does. Maybe he will get the right push this summer when school let's out?
Actually, no, that conclusion does not naturally follow what I said. I demonstrated that this female lifter is NOT stronger than any of our top guys in the weight class right below her. And, I made the point that if she is stronger than the "average" lifter, this is expected, as the female record holder in any event is generally better than the average male in that event. This in response to the statement that she was "stronger than most of our guys".
That everything is ok is not a reasonable conclusion. In fact there are many things that could be improved when it comes to the weightlifting situation in the USA, but none of them can really be addressed when one side of the conversation insists on blaming the fact that we arent #1 on things reasons which are false, and easy to demonstate as false.
If I were trying to motivate someone, I would go about it in a different way. But each to his own. I can assure you that most lifters in the US, particularly the top guys at 94 and 105, are already well aware of what she did, and the difference between their lifts and hers have been discussed. And no one is all that pleased with the margin that exists. But using the situation to bash lifters on a website that has a history of bashing US lifters isn't going to spur anyone on to greater achievement.