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Series of professional strongmen
In the beginning there was the age of the professional strongman, performing on the vaudeville and music hall stages of Europe and America in the late 1800s. -
First recorded contest
First recorded contest -
Athens olympics
Weightlifting in the inaugural 1896 Olympics in Athens featured two events, a one-handed lift and a two-handed lift. -
New lifting suggestions
In 1901 Marquis Luigi Monticelli-Obizzi of Italy made a list of suggestions that would result in significant changes over the course of time, if not immediately. -
Classic olympic lifts
What remained were mostly the three classic Olympic lifts. They did not become standard until the 1928 Olympics -
Bench press
The bench press was a little known exercise until the late 1940s. Again it took off in the 1950s with superb performances by Hepburn and Marvin Eder. -
Power lifts drifting away
The power lifts were not competed on much until the 1950s, being referred to as "odd lifts" in those days. -
Power lifting
In the 1960s powerlifting would emerge as a new sport and would then diverge from Olympic lifting and develop separately.
