Ever seen this before?

[Dilan]

I am looking to enter a meet this year in the UK and just stumbled across this. I have never seen anything like this, ever. I mean, this has to be one the stupidest things I've ever seen in weightlifting, especially since we all know spotters can't catch a missed PR attempt on the bench. Apparently a 44kg girl benched 91kg at this meet, which is very impressive, and I get why the legs are strapped, but still. Just wanted to share.

http://www.britishweightlifting.org/...h-press-champs

[Mark Rippetoe]

I don't get why the legs are strapped. Tell me.

[hamburgerfan]

Wait, if you're not talking about the legs being strapped, then what is so stupid? I don't see anything else out of the ordinary.

[Cadure]

I'm wondering if these are wheelchair athletes and thus require the legs to be strapped down.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Seems like that would have been included in the article. To me, anyway. But I'm not a Brit.

[Gunnhild Bruno]

I'm wondering if these are wheelchair athletes and thus require the legs to be strapped down.

Maybe they allowed paralifters to participate.

[rlw]

She's a paralympian. BWL only usually talks about powerlifting with regards to paralympic sports.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Quite possibly. But if that's the case, they probably allowed a stupid person to write the story. And no more stupid word has ever been coined than "Paralympic."

[Kregna]

Quite possibly. But if that's the case, they probably allowed a stupid person to write the story. And no more stupid word has ever been coined than "Paralympic."

What don't you like about 'Paralympic'?

[Mark Rippetoe]

I somehow knew you would be the one to ask this. "Paralympic" is like "Dance-athon" or "Liftapalooza". It is a silly construction that uses an already established word as its base, in an attempt to play on the previous legitimacy.