Olympic athletes in perspective

Barbara and I fly to Lusaka tonight for our week of nostalgia on the Zambian Copperbelt town of Chingola.

Our only regret is that we will be missing out on the Olympics, which has enthralled us over the past week, as it has millions of people across the world.

A few nights ago I was watching the weightlifting and it brought back memories of one of my closest friends during my time in Zambia.

Peter Fiore, with metallurgists Doug Edmunds,
Vic Bryant and me, 1971

Peter Fiore, who will be well known to most people who lived in Chingola in the early 70s, was an instrumentation technician on the mine and we got to know each other during his regular visits to check flowmeters, density gauges and other essential instruments on the concentrator. He was also the Zambian light-heavyweight power-lifting champion. Only 1.63m tall, he was built like an ox and was immensely strong. In 1978 he became world powerlifting champion in the middleweight class, and he now lives in the UK and is President of the Commonwealth Powerlifting Federation.

In 1972 I was blossoming as a squash player, and Peter took me under his wing and essentially became my personal trainer. The regime he set for me was intensive weight-training in one hour sessions three times per week, but the results were outstanding, not only helping my squash considerably, but also improving my performance at other sports, including  competitive powerlifting.

Straining to deadlift 202 kg, 1972

My best lift was the deadlift, and as a middleweight my personal best in competition was 202 kg, which was put into context while watching the Olympic weightlifters, some of whom, in the same weight class were lifting well over 180 kg in the clean and jerk. For the uninitiated the deadlift requires the lifter only to stand straight with the weight, whereas in the clean and jerk the weight has to be ‘cleaned’ to chest level, before being ‘jerked’ overhead. I have incredible admiration for Olympic weightlifters; the moves are much more skilful than in powerlifting, and it also takes tremendous courage to dip under a moving bar before standing upright.

Yes, I will miss the skills and strength on display over the next week, which are truly amazing- have any of you tried to just walk along a gymnasium beam? If you have you will appreciate the skills and courage of the tiny girls who perform backward somersaults on this daunting apparatus!