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| Event type

Middle-Heavyweight (≤90 kilograms), Men

Date27 July 1952 — 20:00
StatusOlympic
LocationMessuhalli II, Helsinki
Participants20 from 20 countries
FormatTotal of best lifts in military press, snatch, and clean & jerk determined placement. Ties broken by lightest bodyweight.

This was a new event on the Olympic Program, having been added internationally at the 1951 World Championships, when it was won by American Norb Schemansky. Schemansky had won a silver medal at the 1948 Olympics as a heavyweight, held this world record in this class, and came to Helsinki as the favorite. He would not disappoint. The lead in the press was taken by Soviet lifter Grigory Novak, who with 140.0 kg had a big lead on Schemansky, who pressed 127.5 kg, but that was as good as Novak would get. Schemansky lifted 140.0 kg in the snatch to Novak’s 125.0 kg, and when Schemansky cleaned & jerked 177.5 kg for a world record, that shattered his world record total with 445.0 kg, which led Novak by 35 kg. The bronze medal went to Trinidadian Lennox Kilgour, who followed his countryman, Rodney Wilkes, as an Olympic weightlifting medalist. Schemansky would move back to the heavyweight division and win Olympic bronze medals in both 1960 and 1964, making him the first Olympic weightlifter to win four medals.

PosCompetitor(s)NOCK
1Norb SchemanskyUSA445.0WRGold
2Grigory NovakURS410.0Silver
3Lennox KilgourTTO402.5Bronze
4Ibrahim SalehEGY397.5
5Firouz PojhanIRI387.5
6Ken McDonaldAUS385.0
7Héctor RensonnetARG370.0
8Theunis JonckRSA367.5
9Luciano ZardiITA367.5
10Kai OutaFIN365.0
11Börje JeppssonSWE362.5
12Jorge SotoPUR357.5
13Jørgen Barth-JørgensenNOR355.0
14Bruno BarabaniBRA355.0
15Jens Jørn MortensenDEN345.0
16Gheorghe PițicaruROU330.0
ACRobert AllartBEL110.0
ACKamineni Eswara RaoIND212.5
ACLászló BuronyiHUN220.0
ACMel BarnettGBR227.5