Average olympic lifters age

[Eric Larousse]

Why is it that the average age of olympic lifters is 25 but yet powerlifters can continue to make progresss long past that age? In the olympic lifters case is there a point were developing absolute strength does not correlate to olympic lifting performance or is it just due to the fact the your power starts to diminish at a younger age than max strength?

[Mark Rippetoe]

How do you know the average Olympic lifter's age?

[Eric Larousse]

Participants / Medalists / Champion
Beijing

Men
56kg: 28 / 22 / 19
62kg: 26 / 26 / 27
69kg: 26 / 24 / 22
77kg: 26 / 27 / 25
85kg: 24 / 24 / 22
94kg: 24 / 23 / 20
105kg: 26 / 24 / 20
105+kg: 30 / 29 / 25


Women
48kg: 22 / 25 / 23
53kg: 24 / 24 / 24
58kg: 24 / 25 / 29
63kg: 24 / 22 / 23
69kg: 22 / 22 / 23
75kg: 24 / 23 / 24
75+kg: 23 / 22 / 24

[deeprooted]

I guess it has something to do with recovery as well. Olympic lifters have to train both for strength and technique which usually results in more days of training per week than is the case in powerlifting.

Also I'm pretty sure that both the snatch and the clean & jerk at heavy weights are harder on the body than the slow lifts. The extreme ATG front squat receiving positions tend to inflame the knee tendons; the dynamic nature of catching the bar bends the wrists around more often than not and the elbows are also under a lot of strain. Maybe that gets more and more of a problem as people age thus keeping them away from reaching the top or continue to make progress.

[atb5161]

How do you know the average Olympic lifter's age?

Finally, I get you use my favorite site

From the Allthingsgym site graphic, male competitor average ages:
China - 24.00
Russia - 24.67
USA - 26.00
Kazakhstan - 23.00
Iran - 22.50

[Mark Rippetoe]

Participants / Medalists / Champion Beijing.

Eric, you've never been very bright, but this is just amazing. Your post says: "average age of olympic lifters". You don't even bother to capitalize "Olympic." So we're forced to assume you're referring to the SPORT of Olympic weightlifting. And then you attempt to prove your point about a sport by citing data about The Olympic Fucking Games.

I am at a loss here. You might as well also conclude that Olympic weightlifters are Chinese.

[Eric Larousse]

Let me rephrase.....Why do Olympic lifters who lift in the olympics and are assumed to be the strongest Olympic lifters on the planet have an average age of 25 yet powerlifters can be older than that during their peak years? I thought that if you were absolutely stronger on the slow lifts that it would improve Olympic lifts just because of the fact you are more absolutely stronger or am i wrong?

[The Light]

To avoid confusion just call it weightlifting.

[tertius]

Potentially interesting question here, though: has the age of medalists in O-lifting trended down, recently?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Let me rephrase.....Why do Olympic lifters who lift in the olympics and are assumed to be the strongest Olympic lifters on the planet have an average age of 25 yet powerlifters can be older than that during their peak years? I thought that if you were absolutely stronger on the slow lifts that it would improve Olympic lifts just because of the fact you are more absolutely stronger or am i wrong?

What do you know about the ages of most elite athletes?

Potentially interesting question here, though: has the age of medalists in O-lifting trended down, recently?

Sounds like a research paper. Get started.