A Snatch for the Ages – Iron Game History – August, 2014

Three years or so ago, on the cover of Denis Reno’s indispensable Weightlifter’s Newsletter, I saw a photo of Russia’s Tatiana Kashirina. Inside the newsletter I saw, and was amazed by, a set of sequence photos of her making a new world record in the snatch with 145 kilos (319.7 pounds). Kashirina weighted, as I recall, 212 pounds, and I was struck by the solidity and power the photos reveled. Films or a sequence of stills of a world record in the snatch of the clean and jerk sometimes give the impression that the lift resulted more from the flexibility, speed, and technical skill of the lifter than from the explosive power required to elevate a bar to the height required by the rules governing the sport.