Georgian weightlifter Lasha Talakhadze has made history by snatching 217 kilograms (478.4 pounds) at the European Weightlifting Championships in Split, Croatia. That’s the most amount of weight any human being has ever snatched in competition, and the 23-year-old almost made it look easy. Take a look at footage below from All Things Gym.
Lifting in the +105kg category, Lasha Talakhadze is already an extremely accomplished Olympic weightlifter. In the Summer Olympics held in Rio de Janiero last year, he delivered an incredible performance when he snatched 215 kilograms (474 pounds), temporarily setting a new world record until his competitor Behdad Salimi went on to snatch 216 kilograms.
However, in a controversial decision, Salimi’s clean & jerk attempt was overturned by the judges and jury and Talakhadze came out to not only win the gold medal, but set a new world record total with 473 kilograms (1,042.8 pounds).
And now in addition to holding the world record in the weightlifting total, the Georgian has set a new all-time world record in the snatch. It goes without saying that this is an amazing and literally unprecedented accomplishment for a competition lift.
That said, his 217 kilogram snatch isn’t the heaviest ever made on camera — last year, the Iranian Behdad Salimi posted a clip to his Instagram account of a 220 kilogram (485 pound) snatch, which is the heaviest ever lifted from the ground and caught on camera.
To be clear, it’s not known when this was filmed, and it’s certainly not a competition lift.
So what’s next for Talakhadze? All eyes are on Anaheim, where the 2017 World Weightlifting Championship is taking place in November. No one knows if Talakhadze will go on to smash his brand new snatch record at the event, but right now weightlifters all over the planet are waiting in anticipation. Lasha Talakhadze has pushed the barriers of this sport.
Featured image via @atginsta on Instagram.
