WEIGHTLIFTING: Ian O'Riordanis impressed as China shows its strength

CHINA HAS been flexing its muscles in every sense since these Olympics began, and nowhere more impressively than over at the weightlifting - where after several snatches and a few clean and jerks, they've already won four of a possible five gold medals.

But what better way for China to illustrate its rising power than for its young men and women to lift incredible weights above their heads, while the rest of the world looks on in wonder? Especially if they make it look as easy as Xiangxiang Zhang did yesterday in winning the men's 62kg division.

That, by the way, is more or less my weight, and while this was my first experience of Olympic weightlifting, the whole thing was fairly mind-blowing. These guys have to be seen up close to appreciate the sort of weights they're lifting, the power they generate in doing so, and, of course, the flexing of their muscles afterwards.

Zhang lifted 143kg in the more difficult snatch lift, where the bar is lifted from the floor and above the head in one movement, and held there for two seconds. Then he lifted 176kg in the clean and jerk, the more familiar move where the bar is first brought up to the shoulder, and using the combined strength of the arms and legs, raised upwards until the arms are vertically extended.

He then attempted 184kg, almost three times his bodyweight, or just over 400lb. He failed, narrowly, but still won the gold medal with a combined weight of 319kg - a full 14kg better than silver-medallist Diego Salazar of Colombia.

Beijing's University of Aeronautics and Astronautics gymnasium, a beautifully laid out arena which was packed to capacity all evening, went hysterical, naturally. Zhang walked out to collect his gold medal in his Chinese tracksuit looking remarkably slim, and I walked out of there feeling like a total wimp. I returned to the Hotel Tibet and did several sets of push-ups, which is a natural reaction to witnessing such an awesome display of human strength.

The strongman has always had a special place in Olympic history. Inspired by the depiction of the ancient Greek athletes lifting large stones during training, the event was included in the revised Games of 1896, and perhaps somewhat surprisingly, has remained a regular feature ever since.

This despite a notoriously dodgy history: officially, (a mere) 68 positive drug samples have shown up during Olympic competition since the testing began in 1968, not that anyone believes that comes even close to representing the true scale of the problem. And of those, 28 have been in weightlifting.

The event has been repeatedly redesigned in an effort to shake off that dodgy past, first before the 1992 Olympics, when all the weight categories were changed, thus wiping out all world records and effectively starting over "clean". Yet as the drug busts continued unabated, this was repeated after the 1996 Olympics, and again in 1998.

Still, no one expects the event to be anything close to drug free. In the lead up to the Beijing, at least 23 lifters (that we know of) were ruled out after testing positive. Nowhere are good old-fashioned steroids more effective than in the process of lifting a heavy weight above the height, and as long as it remains an Olympic sport, the temptation to cheat will remain.

Zhang required just four successful lifts to claim his gold yesterday, his tactics working a treat. Each competitor, having weighed in two hours before their event, selects three weights in each of the lifts. Zhang came into the snatch on 139kg, raised it to 143kg, and his closest rival there was Hunmin Ji of Korea, who lifted 142kg.

So to the clean and jerk, where Ji appeared first, looking ominous. He went through the standard pre-lift routine; chalk up the hands; check the strapping around the wrists; tighten the black leather belt around the waist. Then he moved in for the kill, they way most of us approach a large bag of coal.

Anyway, Ji failed to lift any weight in the clean and jerk, and thus didn't place. Zhang sat behind the stage with his coach, who gently massaged his head, and on emerging, lifted 169kg without missing a breath.

For his final effort, at 184kg, Zhang fell back on his honkers, and couldn't complete the lift. So he simply smiled, clapped to himself, fell to his knees, and hugged the bar. These weightlifters are also quite a loving, caring bunch.