Meanwhile Last Summer in China …
Here’s a clip of Lu Yong Snatching 178kg.
The other day I asked the uploader about his whereabouts. He said that those clips of him are from summer 2013 and that: “He was chubby and fighting a knee injury.”
Coincidentally, 178kg was also Lu’s last Snatch in competition (at London 2012).
Update: I hear that by now Lu Yong has retired and supposedly has some sort of liver disease.
Update: 185kg Snatch
does anyone know why he melted down so bad in the clean and jerk at the Olympics after putting up good numbers in the Snatch? He looked dead tired.
His quad was badly strained (thus he only got a 200c&j at the 2012 nationals) plus his old heel injury. He was still explosive and had great technique so the snatch went well but the heavier weight of the clean and jerk meant more force and strain on his heel and also greater weight that he had to squat up. Those factors combined got the best of him.
that makes sense…he’s easily strong enough to clean and jerk 205 but it crushed him 3 times, especially considering he tied the WR total and won the Olympics 4 years before. Thanks! I hope he can make a comeback. Looks like Rybakov is done for good.
Lu Yong comeback? I highly doubt it. He has too many old injuries that are probably permanent. He is my absolute favorite lifter and I even had my lifting singlet customized after his 2008 singlet. If he came back in 2016 to win double Olympic champion, I swear, I will cry like a baby. But realistically, I don’t think he will come back to the platform and even if he does, I don’t think he’ll be anything like the champ he was before. He might bomb again or end up 5th place at nationals or something. I’m just glad that I wasn’t a weightlifting fan yet at the 2012 Olympics because that would have been heart-breaking for me to see if I was as much a fan of him then as I am now.
weightlifting is a tough sport.
I’m a fan of Lu Yong also, he showed real fighting spirit when he re-did those 214 kg at the Beijing Olympics. Sad to hear that he is probably retired and possibly ill. When he bombed out in the clean and jerk in London it was my biggest disappointment of those Olympic games.
I also watched the 2005 world championships and realized that Illin hit a 216 clean and jerk at 85k…just 2kg below the WR.. they should have given him a 4th attempt to break the WR!
They stopped doing that by 2005. The rule used to be that you were allowed a 4th attempt if you got within 10kg or the WR. By that, Lu also earned an attempt with his 210kg c&j. I’m not sure when they stopped allowing 4th attempts though.
1989, actually 😉
Btw, 178 was not his last successful snatch in competition. That was 155 from the 2013 Nationals.
By the time this was filmed he was still preparing for the National Games in September (where he bombed with 165), so this wasn’t just to show off.