Leif Jensen

Leif Jenssen receives the gold medal from Constantine II of Greece

Award ceremony

Leif Jensen (born March 19, 1948 in Fredrikstad , Østfold , Norway ) is a former Norwegian weightlifter and Olympic champion.

Career

Leif Jenssen practiced various sports as a teenager and first became interested in weightlifting when he saw pictures of the 1963 World Championships in Stockholm on television . He joined the Lenja Atletklubb Fredrikstad sports club and started training. But he did not train really regularly until 1965, when he switched to the Atletklubb Larvik to coach Eivind Rekustad. On October 26, 1966 he achieved 287.5 kg in the Olympic triathlon in a competition after a year of training in Larvik. Half a year later he had already reached 317.5 kg. By 1968 he was able to increase his performance so much that he was nominated for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City . There he finished 14th in his first major international competition with 405 kg in the middleweight division. But things went forward year after year and his big day came in 1972 when he became Olympic champion in Munich . After 1972, Leif Jensen suffered somewhat from the fact that two-armed pressing, his favorite discipline, was deleted from the competition program. There was now only one duel, consisting of two-armed tearing and pushing. Nevertheless, he was again runner-up in 1974 in the light heavyweight division. In 1975 he ended his international career, but continued to train with a greatly reduced workload. In 1985, for example, he was still so good that he was once again the Norwegian light heavyweight champion with 280 kg in a duel.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championships, EM = European Championships, Wed = Middleweight, Ls = Light Heavyweight)

• 1968, 14th place, OS in Mexico City , Wed, with 405 kg, winner Wiktor Kurenzow , USSR , 475 kg, ahead of Masushi Ōuchi , Japan , 455 kg;
• 1969, 4th place, World Championship in Sofia , Wed, with 435 kg, behind Kurenzow, 467.5 kg and Szarvas, Hungary , 440 kg and Juhani Mursu , Finland, 437.5 kg;
• 1970, 1st place , Baltic Cup in Bergen , Wed, with 440 kg, ahead of Smirnow, USSR, 430 kg and Ari Kurko , Finland , 427.5 kg;
• 1970, 5th place, EM in Szombathely , Wed, with 430 kg, behind Kurenzow, 465 kg, Gabor Szarvas , 452.5 kg, Smirnow, USSR, 445 kg and Jordan Bikow , Bulgaria , 430 kg;
• 1970, 2nd place , World Championships in Columbus / USA , Wed, with 455 kg, behind Kurenzow, 462.5 kg and in front of Szarvas, 445 kg;
• 1971, 1st place , Baltic Cup in Lübeck , Wed, with 442.5, ahead of Waldemar Baszanowski , Poland , 440 kg and Uwe Kliche , Germany , 430 kg;
• 1971, 2nd place , World Championship in Lima , Wed, with 467.5 kg, behind Wladimir Kanygin , USSR, 472.5 kg and in front of Anselmo Silvino , Italy , 460 kg;
• 1972, gold medal , OS in Munich , Ls, with 507.5 kg, ahead of Norbert Ozimek , Poland , 497.5 kg and Horvath, Hungary , 495 kg;
• 1974, 2nd place , World Cup in Manila , Ls, with 350 kg, behind Trendafil Stojtschew , Bulgaria , 350 kg and in front of Rolf Milser , Germany , 347.5 kg

World record

in two-armed tearing:

• 150.5 kg, 1973 in Copenhagen , Ls

Web links

• Leif Jensen in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )