Ilya Ilin lifted an amazing 233 kilograms in the Clean and Jerk during the 2012 London Olympic Games and set several world and Olympic records in the process. Rogelio was there to cover it live and recorded on his Iphone this epic lift!
Living an international lifestyle as I do has its pros and it also has its cons. One of those pros, however, is that you get to be on some cool locations in time for some cool events, and this time I’m in London for the Olympic Games. Being the Olympic junkie that I am, especially for Olympic weightlifting, it is only normal that I am feeling like a kid in a toy store these days.
I’ve been covering the Olympics and haven’t missed a day watching each of the weightlifting categories. Yesterday, I decided to pair up with my good pal Don Juan to go watch live the Olympic weightlifting 94 kilogram category, as one of the weighflifters, Ilya Ilin, was in to rock the competition. And oh he did.
This was the stage where the lifters were about to perform their lifts for the London 2012 Olympic Games
Ilya Ilin broke 5 records (Olympic and World) and went for 233kgs on his last Clean & Jerk lift of the day despite he already had secured the gold medal after his 2nd attempt. For those who don’t know much about Olympic weightlifting, a lifter has 3 attempts on each of the 2 competition lifts, the Snatch and the Clean & Jerk, to post his Total which is the lifter’s highest combined weight lifted (highest Snatch + highest Clean & Jerk = Total). Ilya Ilin had already lifted enough on his second Clean & Jerk attempt to post a high enough Total to get a gold medal yet he wanted to give the crowd something to remember.
The PA announced that Ilya had chosen 233 kilograms for his last lift and everyone in the crowd was looking at each other in a WTF mode because that was 3 kilos below the Olympic record in a weight category above him! Again, for those who don’t know, what that meant was that the man was going for epicness. Well, the man; the dude is only 24 years old, go figure.
We had managed to get ourselves seats in the VIP area so we were sitting next to all these world and Olympic champions, among them Apti Aukhadov, the 85 kg category lifter who won silver the day before and who was sitting right behind us. Cool timid dude who tried saying a few words in English with us as we took photos with him.
As Ilya Ilin stepped on the stage, the whole venue went crazy. I was amazed at the support everyone was giving, including all the weightlifters sitting next to us from competing countries (Ilya is from Kazakhstan), it was a great vibe and place to be in. True Olympic spirit.
As usual, Ilya bowed to the crowd before heading like a lion towards the barbell loaded with a breaking 233 kilograms. Without thinking it twice, he cleaned the barbell to his shoulder, sprung up with ease from the squat position, stood up with the weight and BANG, jerked it overhead with the same ease. Mind blown, all of us. Crowd again went utterly ballistic as what he did was the sort of spirit effort that the Olympic Games is all about: determination, surpassing yourself, physical and mental strength, assertiveness and all that motivational mumbo jumbo that we mere mortals are reminded of every 4 years and that we often forget about.
Here is the video we took (I have disabled embedding for now), the commentator was Don Juan, I just managed to shout “Up up, up” as Ilya recovered from the squat position amidst my mindblown moment:
Ilya Ilin Olympic record at London Olympics
When Ilya Ilin finished the lift and as per his showman character, he waved at everyone and was quite the cool cat. Crowd was applauding and cheering for like a minute and then Ilya left to get ready to pick his medal. When he got back, crowd went bonkers again and then him and the other 2 medallists (Aleksandr Ivanov – silver – and Anatolie Ciricu – bronze) walked around the stage waving at everyone. We decided to leave after everyone left but not before doing all of our getting pics taken with all the lifters in the VIP area with us.
I have been in love with Olympic weightlifting for a very long time already as the sport is an incredible display of what real athleticism is. On another note, I am enjoying being in London for the Olympic Games and can say that the city is putting up a good show for the Games. The only question that I am left with as I enjoy this Olympic Games is: “could not we have the Games every 3 months instead and in some tropical locations?”. Am afraid one can only dream.
These were the final results for the medallists of the Olympic weightlifting 94 kilogram category for the 2012 Olympic Games:
GOLD – Ilya Ilin (Kazakhstan): 418 kilograms (185 + 233)
SILVER – Aleksandr Ivanov (Russia): 409 kilograms (185 + 224)
BRONZE – Anatolie Ciricu (Moldova): 407 kilograms (181 + 226)
All the best, gents.
Rogelio
Excellent dude! I actually found your video through your Youtube channel. I watched the competition on tv and could feel the atmosphere really taking off anytime Ilya stepped on the platform. Were there many Kazakhs in the crowd?
Yep, the place was packed with flags and people wearing light blue (colour of Kazakhstan’s flag), must have been about 1/4 of the venue cheering for Ilya Ilin solely. He seems to be a national hero in Kazakhstan hence the unbelievable support. He got a standing ovation from the whole venue after he finished his 233kg Clean & Jerk.