The One-Hand Snatch

c. 1890 – 1920s · One-arm overhead

The one-hand snatch takes a barbell or dumbbell from the floor to arm's length overhead with one hand in a single movement, the lifter then standing erect with the weight under control. It was one of the standard lifts of early weightlifting, and the one-hand snatch was on the Olympic programme in 1920 and 1924 before one-hand lifts were dropped for the 1928 Games.

At a glance: Olympic history

• 1896, Athens: a "one hand lift", similar to the modern snatch, won by Launceston Elliot with 71 kg — Britain's first Olympic champion.
• 1904, St Louis: no one-hand snatch; the programme had a two-hand lift and an all-around dumbbell event.
• 1906, Athens: a one-hand lift at the Intercalated Games, won by Josef Steinbach. The IOC no longer counts these Games as official.
• 1920, Antwerp: one-hand snatch, one-hand clean and jerk and two-hands clean and jerk, in five bodyweight classes.
• 1924, Paris: five lifts — one-hand snatch, one-hand clean and jerk, two-hands press, two-hands snatch and two-hands clean and jerk. The last Games with one-hand lifts.
• 1928, Amsterdam: the programme became the two-hands press, snatch and clean and jerk.

Description

The lifter grips the bar with one hand, pulls it explosively from the floor and drops under it — in a split or squat, according to style — catching it at arm's length overhead, then stands up with the weight stationary. The free hand helps balance; the rules generally forbade it from touching the bar, and later rules restricted contact with the body.

The lift combines a fast pull, one-arm overhead stability and timing, and was a showcase of the French school of lifting.

Rules in competition

The essentials were constant: one hand, one continuous movement from floor to arm's length, no pressing out of a bent arm, and a standing finish with the weight under control before the referee's signal. Details — the use of the free hand, foot movement, the permitted bar — varied between federations and changed during the 1920s as the international federation codified its rules.

Notable figures

• Launceston Elliot, Athens 1896 — 71 kg (157 lb), Olympic one-hand lift.
• Arthur Saxon — 90.5 kg (about 200 lb), as recorded in his own lists of best lifts.
• Hermann Goerner — credited with 169¾ lb (77 kg) with a 2⅜ in thick-handled barbell.
• Charles Rigoulot — Olympic light-heavyweight (82.5 kg) champion in 1924 on the five-lift total; as a professional in the late 1920s he made a right-hand snatch of about 115 kg (253 lb), the figure usually given as the best one-hand snatch on record.

Disputed and unresolved

Rigoulot's 115 kg was made after he had turned professional, outside Olympic competition. Sources differ on whether to date it to 1928 or 1929, and on how strictly it was refereed; it is nevertheless the standard figure. Other large one-hand snatches reported from music-hall stages are hard to judge, because the bar, the handle and the rules are rarely recorded.