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Saturday, September 23
Dimas earns third gold medal
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- Pyrros Dimas' fanatical rooters were
soccer crowd-loud, creating the kind of raise-the-roof atmosphere
seldom seen in the sport of weightlifting.
It almost cost him a record-tying Olympic gold medal.
Dimas joined Naim Suleymanoglu, the Pocket Hercules from Turkey,
as the only three-time Olympic weightlifting gold-winner, but only
after a fan's poorly timed cheer shook his concentration.
Dimas, forced to make his third lift in the snatch just to stay
in the competition after being unnerved by the fan, recovered from
missing his first two lifts to win the gold medal at 187¼ pounds
(85 kg) Saturday.
"I was nervous. There was a lot of pressure and stress on me to
win the gold medal for my country," Dimas said. "But it wasn't
the fault of the audience. I'm an experienced athlete, and I
shouldn't be distracted like that."
Dimas lifted 473¾ pounds (215 kg) in the clean and jerk to take
the lead, then watched as George Asanidze of Georgia missed at the
same weight -- possibly costing him the gold.
Dimas would have had another lift if Asanidze had been
successful. But after securing the gold, Dimas missed his attempt
at the world-record weight, 481 pounds (218.5 kg), that he would
have had to lift had Asanidze converted.
"But I think I could have lifted any kilos it would have taken
to win the gold," Dimas said.
Dimas, silver medalist Marc Huster of Germany and Asanidze all
had total lifts of 859¾ pounds (390 kg), but Dimas won because of
lowest body weight. He weighed 185 pounds (84.06 kg) to Huster's
185½ pounds (84.22 kg) and Asanidze's 186½ pounds (84.70 kg).
Remarkably, Dimas won in almost identical fashion in Barcelona
in 1992. Then, the top three not only had the same totals but the
same body weight. Dimas won by the second tie-breaker, as the first
lifter to lift the weight.
Huster, bothered by a torn wrist ligament and a cramp in his
leg, also was the silver medalist in Atlanta in 1996.
"I thought this might be my time, then it was Pyrros again,"
Huster said. "I thought this was my night to get the gold, but I
am happy to get the silver."
Shahin Nasirinia, the Iranian lifter who upset Dimas in the 1999
world championships, injured an elbow on his first lift and could
not continue.
The Greek fans who helped fill the Sydney Convention Center for
the first time since weightlifting began Sept. 16 were one of
Dimas' biggest advantages -- but, as it turned out, also his biggest
disadvantage.
As Dimas, Greece's most popular athlete, stepped to the bar for
his first lift (385} pounds, 175 kg¾ in the snatch, the crowd was
unusually noisy. Several fans seemed to be competing with each
other to be the last to give Dimas their encouragement and advice.
Just as Dimas began to lift, a fan sitting to the right of the
podium yelled and a cell phone went off. A disrupted Dimas dropped
the bar in disgust, looking angrily toward the direction of the
crowd noise.
Apparently still upset with his first miss, Dimas then also
missed his second attempt. That meant he had to make his third -- at
385¾ pounds (175 kg), the initial weight he planned to lift -- just
to move on to the clean and jerk.
He made the lift cleanly and easily, pounding his chest and, it
seemed, sighing in relief that he hadn't bombed out in the snatch
as Suleymanoglu did in unsuccessfully trying for his fourth gold
last week at 136½ pounds (62 kg) Sunday.
"I felt very stressed and I felt I had to win the medal for my
country," Dimas said. "I lost my concentration on the first lift.
On the second, I was very anxious again and I missed it. On the
third, I found myself and I did it."
Dimas, who is 29 and grew up in Albania before emigrating to
Greece with his grandparents, hopes to win a fourth gold medal at
home in Athens in 2004.
"I think Naim made a mistake that he stopped training and
competing and I don't plan to do something like that," Dimas said.
"I plan to continue competing ... and I believe I will win a
fourth."
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