Alan Calvert’s The Truth About Weight-Lifting – Iron Game History – January, 2009

The first three decades of the twentieth century witnessed a steady increase in sporting awareness and opportunity for the american citizen. As interest and participation in various sporting activities escalated, new rules and standards were introduced. Weightlifting in particular has been described by sport historian John Fair as “undergoing a metamorphosis from the strongmanism of an earlier era to a more regulated and respectable status” during these years.