Matthias Steiner of Germany won a battle of giants Tuesday to claim Olympic gold in weightlifting’s heaviest division and the right to call himself the world’s strongest man.

Steiner heaved a total of 461 kilogram (1,016.3 pounds) in the men’s super heavyweight category, clinching the win with a clean and jerk of 258 kg (568.8 pounds).

Russia’s Evgeni Chigishev was second, while world champion Viktors Scerbatihs of Latvia had to settle for bronze.

At the medal ceremony, Steiner held up a picture of his wife Susann, who died in a car accident last year.

“I thought of her before the competition,” he said. “I won this for her, for friends and family. But mostly for her.”

Chigishev was the strongest in the snatch session. He kissed his fists after a 210-kg (463-pound) lift that gave him a 7-kg (15.4-pound) advantage over Steiner going into the second event—the clean and jerk.



He let out a victorious roar after clearing 250 kg (551.2 pounds) in his last lift, but the glory was short-lived.

“I was kind of hoping that Steiner wouldn’t beat me,” Chigishev said.

He was wrong.

Steiner, who took 203 kg (447.5 pounds) in the snatch session, stunned everyone in his last clean and jerk, a monster effort that was also the final lift of the Olympic weightlifting competition.

His face beet-red from the effort, Steiner pushed the bar up with fully extended arms and held steady, as the crowd howled in approval.

In the snatch, the bar is raised above the head in one continuous motion. The clean and jerk is a two-part lift in which the bar is first pulled up to shoulder level, and then thrust overhead.

Steiner had faced great adversity since placing seventh in the 105-kilogram category four years ago in Athens, where he competed for his native Austria. Besides the tragic death of his wife, he had a falling-out with the Austrian Weightlifting Federation that led him to change his citizenship to Germany.

“I grew up in Austria so for sure there is a little bit of Austria in me, but the last part of it was made in Germany,” said Steiner, who gained 40 kilograms (88 pounds) to compete with the super heavyweights.

It was Germany’s first Olympic weightlifting gold medal since Ronny Weller won the super heavyweight class in Barcelona in 1992.

Missing from Tuesday’s competition was weightlifting legend Hossein Rezazadeh, who announced his retirement before the Olympics, citing health problems that were not clearly defined. Also known as the “Iranian Hercules,” Rezazadeh won gold in the past two Olympics and holds the world records for snatch, clean and jerk and total.

“I don’t think he was strong enough so he didn’t come,” Steiner said of the Iranian. “If he wanted to win gold, he should have been here.”

China wasn’t represented in the heaviest categories but dominated other weight classes at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The 10 Chinese lifters won eight gold and one silver, a big boost to the host nation’s overall medal tally.

The third-placed Scerbatihs, a member of Latvia’s Parliament, said he wasn’t sure he would continue training for the London Olympics in 2012. Scerbatihs, 33, said he may end his weightlifting career to devote more energy to his day job and family plans.

“I don’t even have a girlfriend so I have to think about it,” he said. “It’s either London in four years time or a family. I haven’t decided yet.”

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