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The weightlifting events started in Rabat this Sunday, August 25th. Olympic sport since the Olympic Summer Games of 1896 in Athens, weightlifting is practiced throughout the African continent and dominated by Egypt. Reportage.
From our special envoy to Morocco,
In a sports hall in a quiet area of Rabat, speakers spit a techno music. Behind the podium, we hear the sound of the weights hitting the ground, the athletes warm up. Some officials have their picture taken. The atmosphere is muffled, the public a little absent.
Outside, a few meters away, while the sun is at its zenith, djellabas and babouches on the feet, we palaver between men on the terrace of the bar of the district, without really taking an interest in this ancestral discipline. Inside, young people play cards sipping an American soda under the fan. Weightlifting remains a specialist business.
Propel the bar and weights above the head
This sport of lifting weights at both ends of a bar is present at the African Games. Two main movements can be executed, namely the snatch and the clean and jerk. The goal: to propel the bar and the weights over the head with arms outstretched. If the snatch takes place at once, the jarred-thrown takes place in two stages. Before lifting the bar over the head, it should be placed on the upper chest, then on the shoulders.
The outer door of the training area during the entire competition is open. Kids in roller skates watch the Egyptian Mohamed Ihab sweat in big drops. They can not imagine that they are facing the bronze medalist at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, and a triple world and African champion. He, curly hair and smile of circumstance, sports a red T-shirt on which one can read Tokyo. His next goal. He raises his weight to the thirst, under the approving eye of his coach.
" Weightlifting, I fell in very small at the age of eight, says Mohamed Ihab. My whole family is playing this sport and my father has been an African champion. Next door, a Congolese athlete admits his admiration: " He represents Africa in world competitions, he makes us proud ". Two Cameroon women stretch their aching muscles by the effort.
" Egypt is one of the most important countries in the world ranking of this sport. Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa also have very good weightlifters, "said the president of the Tunisian Federation who is satisfied that weightlifting is still an Olympic sport.
Under the supervision of the International Olympic Committee
The twenty or so cases of doping between the games in Beijing in 2008 and those in London in 2012 set fire to the International Federation. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Anti-Doping Agency took the bull by the horns to bring order to the family of weightlifting.
The IOC had decided to leave the International Weightlifting Federation under surveillance, before confirming its place at the 2024 Olympic Games, asking to provide concrete proposals before the end of 2017 to fight against doping.
Regardless, weightlifting remains popular across much of the African continent. " I train three times a day and that's my passion, " said Tunisian Karem Ben Hnia . I started in elementary school and I never stopped. It's been 17 years! In the middle of the afternoon, the announcer announces the names of the athletes who will be entering for the first day of competition. Three kids in the neighborhood take a look through the back door of the gym, laugh, and then disappear.
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