30 Jul 2012

Teenage weightlifter Zoe Smith breaks British record

Zoe Smith, the teenage weightlifter, breaks a British record in an impressive Olympic debut.

Zoe Smith (pic: Getty)

Smith was in the second tier, or group B, of the female weightlifters in the 58kg division, and finished 12th in the competition.

In the snatch part of the competition Smith lifted 90kg, but then followed it up with a lift of 121 kg in the clean and jerk event, breaking the British record.

The lifts gave Smith a competition total of 211kg. The competition was won by Li Xueying from China, who achieved an Olympic record with a total from the two lifts of 246 kg. Thailand picked up the silver medal and Ukraine the bronze.

Britain’s strongest schoolgirl

Smith is an old hand at the event, winning a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010. It earned her the moniker of “Britain’s strongest schoolgirl” – which may well be true.

Standing just 5ft tall and weighing 9st 12lb, at her best she lifts 150kg – more than 23 stone. She has broken more than 350 weightlifting records in the last four years.

Running in the family

It appears to run in the family, as her mother Carol was a practitioner of Kempo Jiu-Jitsu, a discipline developed by the Japanese samurai, winning one of the first green belts in the UK.

Several military forces around the world employ the locks and holds of jiu-jitsu as a foundation for their unarmed combat system.

But Zoe has had to deal with a very different kind of opponent – on Twitter.

After a behind the scences programme about the Team GB weightlifters – entitled “Girl Power: Going For Gold” – was aired on BBC3 earlier this month, Smith received a string of abusive comments on Twitter.

One wrote of Miss Smith and her fellow weightlifters: “You wouldn’t marry any of them they’re probably lesbians anyway.”

Tweeting about the exchange on her blog, Miss Smith wrote: “To think people still think like this is laughable. We’re in 2012!”

Messages of support

Since then Zoe Smith has been deluged with messages of support for standing up to the bullies.

Her manager, Gab Stone, said he was “immensely proud” of the way she had responded.

“She is such a level-headed girl that it is sometimes hard to believe she is only 18,” he remarked.

“This sort of abuse is something we take really seriously and I think some other athletes her age would be really affected by it.

“But I think the way she has responded is absolutely brilliant.”