Lee James, The Last Great American Weightlifter (Part 3)

Here’s the final installment on the weightlifting career of the incomparable Lee James. 

Then came the Olympics, where Lee had hopes of becoming just the second American lifter to earn a medal since the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City when superheavyweight Joe Dube won the Bronze Medal. No American weightlifter had medalled at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.

Lee arrived at Olympic Village about a week before the competition. Lee remembers it clearly.

At 22-yrs-old, Lee was the youngest of the 19 competitors. The main competitors were David Rigert of the Soviet Union (the heavy favorite), Atanas Shaprov of Bulgaria, and Lee’s teammate Phil Grippaldi. All three men were very proficient in the Clean & Jerk. That meant Lee knew he had to do well in the Snatch to have a chance at medalling.

Rigert missed his opening Snatch attempt, but made his next two, and finished with 170 kg/374.8 lbs. Lee, on the other hand, made all three of his attempts and finished with 165 kg/363.7. Lee’s 165 snatch was an Olympic record until Rigert snatched 170 just a few minutes later. Shopov made only his opening attempt at 155 kg/341.7. Grippaldi made his first two attempts but missed his third finishing with 150 kg/330.6.

Lee shows his technique

The lifter who had been predicted to win the Silver Medal, Serhiy Poltoratsky of the Soviet Union, failed on all three attempts in the Snatch, thereby eliminating himself from the competition. Lee and Michel Broilet of Switzerland were in the spot Poltoratsky had vacated, dead even for second place going into the Clean and Jerk portion of the competition.

But then Lee put himself in jeopardy of not medalling when he missed his 1st C&J attempt with 190 kg/418.8 lbs. Thankfully, he came back strong to make it on his second attempt. And that’s when things got exciting.

U.S. head coach Tommy Kono wanted Lee to take 195 kg/430 lbs for his third attempt, but Lee’s coach Dick “Smitty” Smith felt that Lee needed 197.5 kg/435.4 lbs to stay in medal contention. It would be the most weight Lee had ever done in the C&J.

Kono finally relented and gave Lee the ok to take the 197.5. “The last thing I remember that day, Lee recalls, “is Smitty saying to me as I walked out to the platform, ‘You need to be successful in this lift, Lee. If you miss it, you’ll not only lose your chance for a medal, but I’ll be in big trouble with coach Kono.'” “I felt confident that I could lift it,” said Lee, “and thankfully, I did.”

Now all Lee could do was wait and see what the others were capable of lifting. The waiting was nerve-wracking. “I was hopeful that I would at least win a Bronze Medal. Even if I tied for third, it would go in my favor being that the tiebreaker would go to the man with lighter bodyweight. I was much lighter than the others.”

Lee James: The lift that won him Olympic Silver

When the fog of waiting had cleared, it revealed that Broilet had been eliminated from medal contention. He missed all three attempts with 197.5/435.4. Rigert made two of three in the C&J, finishing with 212.5/468.4. Shopov made two of three finishing with 205/452. Grippaldi also made two of three, finishing with 205/452.

After adding the two lifts together, the final results were:

1st place: David Rigert, USSR – 382.5 kilos
2nd place: Lee James, USA – 362.5 kilos
3rd place: Atanas Shopov, Bulgaria – 360 kilos
4th place: Phil Grippaldi, USA – 355 kilos

Lee James had done it! He had won the Silver for Team USA. Patriotic Lee was proud to have won a medal for his country.

Lee demurred when I asked how it felt. “I always believed that God had a destiny in mind for me. As I continued lifting and getting stronger, I began to think that this was the direction God was sending me in. I always prayed for the strength to push harder and harder. I felt incredibly blessed to have won the silver medal.”

Lee James, Olympic champion!