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Re: Video of Grigory Novak (1946) *LINK*

Posted By: arthur chidlovski (c-75-69-104-210.hsd1.ma.comcast.net)
Date: Sunday, May 4, 2008, @ 6:11 p.m.

In Response To: Re: Video of Grigory Novak (1946) (Rob Macklem)

Hi Rob:

Here is a complete stats report of Grigory Novak:

http://www.chidlovski.net/liftup/l_athleteResult.asp?a_id=185

It lists 71 world records and his results @ the top international and USSR championships.

If French people would forgive me, Grigory Novak was to Soviet weightlifting what Charles Rigulot was to weightlifting in France. He was a true legend and people were telling stories about him and his strength way outside the training halls!

When Novak won the world title in 1946, the Soviet media began to call him "Great Russian Strongman" which was misleading because Novak was Jewish and the press would have never come up with the headlines saying "Great Jewish Strongman" in the Soviet paper.

Novak was born in Chernobyl, a small town near Kiev in Ukraine. Some might remember Chernobyl as as a place of nuclear power plant explosion in 1986. His father was a construction contructor and young Novak began to work in construction at an early age. He was extremely strong and joyful. At 18, he got to the weightlifting hall and managed to lift 75 kg in his first attempt. His bodyweight was 63 kg.

As a weightlifter per se, he was rather one-dimensional, he had a sensational press and never worked hard on his weak lifts - snatch and cj. At the early stages, his advance in press was enough to total with gold. Later on, his lack of work on dynamic lifts caught up with him - he began to lose. At 1952 Olympics, he competed against Norb Schemansky in the mid heavyweight. He beat Norb in press by 12.5kg and... lost in total with 410kg or 35 kg behind Schemansky.

Oh well, I can endlessly talk about the guy. I am just glad that I was able to find some footage with him.

Arthur

Lift Up: History of Olympic Weightlifting

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