Behdad Salimi’s World Record Snatch
The great thing about CrossFit is that it exposes you to a variety of sports many would never try. For the great majority that sport is Olympic weightlifting.
We can all remember how difficult it was learning our first snatch or clean and jerk. For some just getting over the fear of jumping under the bar with technique plates was an issue within itself. Yet with practice and patience your lifts got better and the weight gradually got heavier. Soon your confidence grew to a point where you began to tell your friends, family and box about your most recent PB.
Some will look around their boxes and see some great lifts of 40, 60, 80 or even 100 kilograms plus. You begin to compare your lifts to those great athletes you train with and start to think you’re not half bad. After awhile you actually think you’re pretty good at this o-lifting thing, what was all the fuss about, right? That is until you see a real specialist at work and that fear of getting under the bar comes back after you see the weights they are pulling.
This last week the World Weightlifting Championships were held in Paris. After several minutes of watching some very petite women snatch weights most men would be happy they could deadlift, I knew it was going to be an exciting evening.
The night was a great display of strength, power and technique. It was also interesting to see the slight nuances the competitors had when it came to their setup for snatch. The most interesting setup of the evening was that of Behdad Salimi. Salimi would walk up to the bar, say a small prayer, squat down into his setup position, then just when you thought he was about to lift, he would deadlift the bar half way up his shins, let out a scream, sit back down and then snatch. It appeared to be a somewhat unorthodox approach.
Yet by the end of the night Salimi’s unorthodox technique would see him break the eight year old world record snatch previously held by Hossein Rezazadeh at 213 kilograms. Salimi’s new world record snatch, an easy 214 kilograms! Oh and by the way Salimi was born on December 8, 1989. Yes 1989, making him just 21 years young.
You can check out the technique and new the new world record below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLiW1o80A8g
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