Lü Xiaojun (Chinese: 吕小军; pinyin: Lǚ Xiǎojūn; born 27 July 1984) is a Chinese weightlifter. He is an Olympic champion and five time world champion competing in the 77 kg category until 2018 and 81 kg starting in 2018 after the International Weightlifting Federation reorganized the categories.
Start memeing him instead of the clearly photoshopped chad guy that was probably made for porn purposes.
The DPRK also has a very competent weightlifting team:
Including one world champion who lifted 3 times his weight in a clean and jerk (the move you see in the picture above, though that’s another athlete here). That means moving a dead weight from the ground, up as high as you can above your head (they reason they hold their arms so far out is exactly because it means less distance to travel lol). That’s 105 kilograms on her hands in the pic above btw.
In general ex-USSR countries (+ China and DPRK) dominate this sport. The Soviets had it down to a science.
Indeed, their training method of step loading is great, I’ve adopted it recently and love it.
But it’s no exaggeration saying they had it down to a science, they would study the progression of an athlete for 2 or 3 olympic cycles, instead of the more usual 5 or 6 months and make assumptions from there.
To me the way those countries treat/treated sports is fascinating, there’s so much choice, incentive and support starting from a young age.