Zoe Smith is a female weighlifter who competes for Great Britain. With the Olympics only a year away, we ask Zoe when she will know she's qualified for Team GB. In the road to 2012, Zoe looks forward to some of the challenges that await and she tells us what she is most excited about in the coming months.
Olympic weightlifting, also called Olympic-style weightlifting or weightlifting, is a sport in which participants attempt a maximum weight single lift of a barbell loaded with weight plates. The two lifts competed are the clean and jerk and the snatch. Clean and press was another weightlifting technique, discontinued due to difficulties in judging proper form. The compound word "weightlifting" is also often used to refer to weight training. In comparison with other strength sports which tests limit strength (with or without lifting aids), olympic weightlifting tests ballistic limits (explosive strength) with smaller weights, such that the lifts must be executed faster and with more mobility, because of a greater range of motion during the lifts. While there are relatively few competitive Olympic lifters, the lifts and their components are commonly used by elite athletes to train for explosive and functional strength.