Stanley Stanczyk

Stanley Anthony "Stan" Stanczyk (born May 10, 1925 in Armstrong , Wisconsin , † July 3, 1997 in Miami ) was a US- American weightlifter and Olympic light heavyweight champion in 1948.

Career

Stanczyk grew up in Detroit . At the age of nine he attended a sports club where he boxed, wrestled, swam and also practiced with light weights. In 1941 he began seriously with the trainer Johnny Krills with the weightlifting. Already at the age of 17 he had reached the national top when he finished third at the US Middleweight Championships in 1942 with 347.5 kg. In 1943 he volunteered for the US Army and spent most of the war in the Pacific theater. In 1945 he was discharged from the army. He immediately started training again.

Due to his good performance in some competitions, he was noticed in 1946 by the mentor of American weightlifting, Bob Hoffmann, who brought him to the York Barbell Club in New York that same year . In 1946 he started at an international championship for the first time. For tactical reasons he had trained 8 kg of his body weight in order to be able to start in the lightweight. Despite this horse cure, he became world champion. In 1947 he was first American middleweight champion when he beat Frank Spellman and John Terpak . From then on, until his retirement in 1955, he was one of the absolute world leaders in his weight class.

Stan Stanczyk was also an excellent bodybuilder who won many awards in national competitions.

In 1949 he moved from New York to warmer Miami . In 1951 he and a partner opened a sports school with a focus on weightlifting, which he gave up in 1955 and opened a bowling center, which he ran for 27 years. In 1953 he married and had two sons and two daughters with his wife. In addition to his professional duties, he also trained some weightlifters for 20 years, especially the world lightweight champion from 1951 Joe Pitman .

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, Le = lightweight, Mi = middleweight, Ls = light (half) heavyweight)

• 1946, 1st place , World Championships in Paris , Le, with 367.5 kg, ahead of Vladimir Swetilko , USSR , 347.5 kg and Georgi Popow , USSR, 335 kg;
• 1947, 1st place , World Championships in Philadelphia , Wed, with 405 kg, ahead of Frank Spellman, USA , 375 kg and Kim Sung-Jip , South Korea, 352.5 kg;
• 1948, gold medal , OS in London , Ls, with 417.5 kg, ahead of Harold Sakata , USA, 380 kg and Gösta Magnusson, Sweden , 375 kg;
• 1949, 1st place , World Championships in Scheveningen , Ls, with 412.5 kg, ahead of Jean Debuf , France , 382.5 kg and Raissi, Iran , 365 kg;
• 1950, 1st place , World Championships in Paris, Ls, with 422.5 kg, ahead of Arkady Vorobyov , USSR, 422.5 kg and Avad, Egypt , 382.5 kg;
• 1951, 1st place , Pan Am Games, Ls, with 405 kg, in front of Forte, Argentina and Garrido, Cuba , 380 kg;
• 1951, 1st place , World Championships in Milan , Ls, with 402.5 kg, ahead of Debuf, 392.5 kg and Hassan Rhanavardi, Iran, 387.5 kg;
• 1952, silver medal , OS in Helsinki , Ls, with 415 kg, behind Trofim Lomakin , USSR, 417.5 kg and in front of Vorobyov, 507.5 kg;
• 1953, 3rd place , World Championships in Stockholm , Ls, with 415 kg, behind Vorobjow, 430 kg and Lomakin, 427.5 kg;
• 1954, 3rd place , World Championship in Vienna , Wed, with 390 kg, behind Peter George , USA, 405 kg and Fjodor Bogdanowski , USSR, 402.5 kg.

American championships

Stan Stanczyk was middleweight champion in 1947 and American light heavyweight champion in 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1953.

World records

in the Olympic three-way battle:

• 1946, 367.5 kg in Paris, Le,
• 1947, 405 kg in Philadelphia, Wed.

in two-armed tearing:

• 1947, 124 kg in Chicago, Wed,
• 1947, 126 kg in Cleveland, Wed,
• 1947, 127 kg in Philadelphia, Wed,
• 1949, 132 kg in Cleveland, Ls.

in two-armed thrusting:

• 1947, 159 kg in Chicago, Wed,
• 1947, 160 kg in Cleveland, Wed.

Web links

• Stan Stanczyk on letter S.
• Stanley Stanczyk on the cover of Physical + Power magazine
• Stanley Stanczyk in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )