According to weightlifting historian John Fair, the Golden Age of American Weightlifting was defined as the period from 1945 to 1960. It was a time when American athletes regularly populated the podiums of international weightlifting competitions. In fact, counting from the Paris World Championships in 1946 through the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, the United States weightlifting team won seven of eleven world team titles and more than half of the individual titles. Some of the greatest lifters in history were members of the United States weightlifting teams during this successful run of years. Over on Strongman Project, we have decided to celebrate the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo by publishing features dedicated to some of the greatest athletes to represent the United States in Olympic weightlifting: Tommy Kono and John Davis already have features published there, but you can expect to see new features on Paul Anderson, Pete George, John Terry, Norbert Schemansky, Steve Stanko, Stan Stanczyk, Chuck Vinci, Ike Berger, and Jim Bradford. The team had a notable patron in Bob Hoffman, founder and president of the York Barbell Company. Beginning today, with a new feature about Paul Anderson, and running through the closing ceremonies on August 8, you can expect to see nine new features published on Strongman Project, each one dedicated to a different Olympic lifter. Be sure to follow @thestarkcenter on Instagram and Facebook to see announcements of new publications and other Olympic-related posts. We hope you enjoy the Games as they are already one of the most unique in history. We also hope you enjoy looking back in history to revel with us in the Golden Age of American Weightlifting.

(The featured photo is from the Peary & Mabel Rader Collection, Photo by Jack King. From L to R: John Davis, Jim Bradford, Norbert Schemansky, and Paul Anderson).