Judy Glenney – Bringing Women’s Weightlifting to the Olympic Games

By Arthur Drechsler ©  2024

Introduction

Today women’s weightlifting competitions enjoy parity with men’s weightlifting competitions in areas such as the number of competitions held, the bodyweight categories contested and the number of athletes competing (with some major competitions having more female competitors than males). But this was not always the case, far from it. 

While a men’s Weightlifting event was part of the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, it wasn’t until 104 years later that women were accepted as participants in an Olympic Weightlifting event at the Olympic Games in 2000.

Similarly, the event recognized as the first men’s official World Weightlifting Championships took place in London in 1891. However, it wasn’t until 1987 that women had their first opportunity to compete in a World Weightlifting Championship in Daytona Beach, FL. 

Many men and women contributed to the parity that women’s weightlifting has achieved on the international level. However, Judy Glenney has been recognized by USA Weightlifting and the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) for her unique contribution to that achievement, and deservedly so.

Both the length and breadth of her work for women’s weightlifting has been truly remarkable. While her achievements were not accidental, her involvement in weightlifting was a turn of events that proved to be of immense importance to her and the sport she grew to love. This is the story of how she became Women’s Weightlifting’s most influential pioneer.   

How Judy Became A Competitive Weightlifting Legend

Born Judith Ann Zimmerman in 1949, in Portland, Oregon, Judy grew up in a sports-oriented family. She began playing tennis, skiing, and throwing baseballs and footballs around with her father and brother at an early age.

She participated in many sports in high school and excelled in basketball and track and field (the latter in sprints and hurdles). She’d always been interested in improving her strength and there was a weight room right in her school, but that was considered a strictly a “boys only” area at the time. So Judy was not able to take up weight training while she was in high school.

When it was time to go off to college, on the basis of her love of sports, Glenney decided to major in physical education. While there, she participated in field hockey, softball, tennis and continued to run sprints on the track team.

Although Judy loved the sprints, by the end of her college career she had come to the realization that she was not fast enough to truly excel in that area. Therefore, she decided to try the field events. However, at a height of 5’ 7” and a bodyweight of 150 lb., she realized she’d need to build her strength in order to compete with the 200 lb. plus women who typically participated in such events at a high level.

Lifting weights seemed like a good way to acquire the strength she needed for the field events, but she didn’t know much about that activity. She began to look for help and found it by serendipity.

While working in a summer job at an organization called Campus Crusade for Christ, her duties included cleaning and organizing the weight room the organization maintained. It was in the weight room of the Campus Crusade that weightlifting career began when she met the man who would become her future coach and husband, Gary Glenney.

Gary was a very successful Olympic-style Weightlifter having won a number of awards in that sport, including a bronze medal at the 1969 Senior National Championships. Learning of Judy’s interest in strength training, Gary encouraged that interest and introduced her to basic strength building exercises like the squat and bench press.

Through Gary, Judy met Russ Knipp, a multi-time National Champion and World Recordholder in weightlifting, who headed up the Campus Crusade for Christ’s “Athletes in Action” weightlifting program. After watching Russ, Gary and others on the team do the Olympic lifts, Judy became fascinated by those lifts and asked Gary to teach her them as well, which he happily did.  

In a 2018 article honoring Judy, published by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) she said:

“The thing that intrigued me about the Olympic lifts was that they combined so many different things: strength, power, flexibility. Moving the body into those positions absolutely amazed me.”

Although she had only limited equipment to continue her training when she returned home from her summer job to finish her last year of college, Judy trained as best she could. And she remained in contact with Gary through a series of letters.

She went to visit Gary and meet his family in Pennsylvania during her college’s Christmas break. Over the months that followed, Judy’s love for Gary and for weightlifting continued to grow.

Following her graduation, she secured a position with the Campus Crusade for Christ, as part of their Athletes in Action weightlifting team. Now she took up the sport of weightlifting in earnest, traveling and training with the team wherever they went.

They toured the country, attracting audiences with their lifting ability. Judy’s performances helped to introduce many women to the idea of lifting weights and demonstrated that such lifting could produce an attractive figure (not the “too muscular” appearance that many women of that era feared any weight training would produce).

Her relationship with Gary grew closer and stronger over time. They were married in 1971 and have remained together ever since.

As she became more knowledgeable about the sport of weightlifting, Judy began to help the Athletes in Action team whenever they competed.  

Early in their marriage, Judy told Gary that she wanted to compete in weightlifting, not just train for it. Given there were no such things as women’s weightlifting competitions at the time, she expressed her apprehension to Gary, who, as her lifetime supporter, suggested “let’s start it”.

By year end 1971, or early 1972, Judy participated in her first competition, where she pressed and snatched 82 lb. lifted 132 lb. in the clean and jerk (the press was part of the three event competitions that made up the sport at that time).

After that first competition, Judy began to try to enter every competition she could. Some meet directors rejected her entry on the basis that weightlifting’s international rules (which the US generally followed) made no provision for women in the sport. Fortunately, other meet directors, while having trouble fathoming why she would want to compete against men, permitted her to lift in their meets anyway.

With respect to her male competitors, she estimates they were about equally balanced in terms of accepting her and seeing her as an annoyance.

At this point in her career, she was not focused on breaking barriers but rather simply wanted to test her abilities under official conditions and compete in a sport she had grown to love. So she simply kept competing whenever she was permitted to do so, enjoying the process immensely.

She let her lifting ability speak for itself, demonstrating she was serious both by the amount she could lift and the skill with which she lifted it. Her male counterparts had to accept that, given her technical skill and strength, she was as serious as anyone else about the sport and more serious than many.

It happened that while Judy was pursuing her personal opportunities to compete, in the early 1970s, the feminist movement was growing. Judy began to realize that by testing herself and competing she was also helping to break barriers for women in the sport of Weightlifting. Of her desire to compete, she has said “If I could show them I could lift with correct technique, that’s how I would win respect. I let my lifting do the talking.” 

While this was going on, a number of those who were influential in the sport began to speak out in support of women’s lifting. Denis Reno, publisher of the very popular “New England Weightlfiting Newsletter” (which was read nationwide despite its name), wrote an article advocating for the inclusion of women in competitions. In fact, such competitions had actually been conducted as early as the 1940s in the US, but interest in them seemed to decline in the 1950s, and such competitions had disappeared.

Bill Clark took up the women’s cause (perhaps influenced by Denis Reno’s article). He applied for and received an AAU sanction for a meet he planned to conduct in February 17, 1972. Only five lifters (including Judy) actually competed in the event, but it, was Clark noted “a start.”

Being impressed by some of Glenney’s competitive efforts, several important supporters emerged. One was renowned international official Rudy Sablo. Another was AAU Weightlifting Committee Chair, Murray Levin. Still another was Iron Man magazine co-publisher, and sole female National level weightlifting official at the time, Mabel Rader.

In addition to the moral support Judy received at the time from Murray, Rudy and Mabel, the latter contributed “editorial support” through her magazine, advocating for women’s lifting competitions. She also wrote an important article about what Judy was accomplishing in 1978. Over time, Mabel and Judy became “co-conspirators” in the promotion of women’s weightlifting, with Judy eventually contributing articles to Mabels’ publications.   

Inspired in part by Judy’s success, and the successes of other early female weightlifters, more and more women began to test the waters in weightlifting competitions all around the country.

Murray Levin Formally Joins the Women’s Movement

In one of his many efforts to build the sport of weightlifting in the US, Murray Levin arranged for the US to host a World Weightlifting Championships in Gettysburg, PA, in 1978.

During those championships, Murray had the opportunity to meet with officials and coaches from China, a country which at the time was just beginning to emerge as a world power in weightlifting. One of the things he asked the Chinese delegation about was the popularity of weight training among women in China. To his amazement, the representatives from China told him there were approximately 100,000 women training with weights in high schools and universities in China, where there was great support for the women’s movement in the sport, which obviously included weightlifting.

Murray had come to believe that, for purposes of justice and equality, women should be welcomed into the sport of weightlifting. He also felt that inviting women into the sport would build overall interest in it. But now that he’d learned what was going on in China in connection with women’s weightlifting, he became even more convinced that bringing women into our sport would be highly beneficial for them and for the sport.

Toward that end, Murray created a Women’s Weightlifting Committee to explore the development of weightlifting competitions on a national level in the US. He asked Mabel Rader to serve as the chair of that committee.

Mabel was then the only female national level referee in the sport. In addition, she and her husband Peary had published a magazine called Iron Man (although it did include some information of women’s lifting) for many years. Based on previous conversations with Mabel about women’s weightlifting, Murray felt sure Mabel would welcome the opportunity to head such a committee, and he was right. Mabel jumped at the chance.

Mabel brought Judy aboard as a committee member early on, in part to provide a competing athlete’s perspective. Judy was thrilled to work with Mabel on this project.

Shortly after her appointment, Mabel began to lobby the USWF board members about creating a women’s national championship. Having observed the rise of women’s powerlifting after such a championship was established there, she was convinced that organizing a nationals was a key to the development of women’s weightlifting as a sport in the US.

One of Judy’s first actions on behalf of the committee was to approach the Executive Director of the USWF to obtain contact information of the regional chairs of weightlifting around the US. She then wrote to those chairs to advocate for women’s lifting in general and for the organization of a national championships in particular. The regional chairs were asked to announce the formation of the women’s sub-committee and to encourage interested women to contact that committee.

In the meantime, Chairman Levin encouraged Mabel and Judy to formulate rules for the women such as bodyweight categories, required and permitted attire and weigh-in procedures. For instance, all athletes had historically been required to weigh-in nude, but save Mabel there were no national level female referees to conduct such weigh-ins for the women (in fact, Mabel may well have been the only female National level weightlifting referee in the world at that time).

Mabel and Judy came up with the recommendation that the initial attire required for women include the same kind of lifting suits (singlets) that the men wore, but their proposed rules also required t-shirts (which were not required for men) and non-supportive bras. Mabel and Judy decided to recommend use of the same bodyweight categories that were then being used in women’s national powerlifting competitions at the time.

They also recommended that no minimum “qualifying totals” be required in order to be eligible at the proposed initial championships, given that their initial focus would be on attracting competitors, not limiting them. They did however require that any woman who wanted to compete in the first nationals had to have competed in at least one sanctioned local competition prior to entering the Nationals.

In the fall of 1980, Mabel presented the findings of her sub-committee to the USAW’s Weightlifting Committee. Those findings included a recommendation to organize a first women’s nationals the following year (1981).

As voting member of the Weightlifting Committee at the time, I had a bird’s eye view of, and a voice in, what transpired following Mabel’s presentation. There was much discussion of Mabel’s recommendation regarding the prompt staging of a nationals.

While I don’t recall anyone on the committee opposed the idea of women having a national championship per se, some felt that it was too early to hold such an event, as not many women were competing at the time. There was concern that because there were so few women actively competing, lifting performances would be poor and some athletes might win such a championship with relatively low lifts. Some felt it would be improper to have women’s champions who’d lifted relatively little, believing this might invite ridicule that would damage the reputation of the competition. 

As an athlete’s rep to the Committee at the time, I felt it was my responsibility to represent all athletes regardless of gender, and I argued for having a championships as soon as possible, both because it was the right thing to do, and because it was the best way to foster women’s weightlifting in the US. I pointed out that the results of the first men’s nationals were uneven, but that once the event got off the ground, participation began to grow, along with performances.

Eventually, Chair Levin called for what would be a historic vote. The ten man committee (there were no female committee members at the time) registered a tie vote on the motion of five votes yes and five votes no.

The voting rules at the time provided that if a tie vote occurred, the Chair of that committee (who was not counted among the 10 committee members) could vote to break the tie. Murray Levin spoke on behalf of running a national championship and he elected to break the tie, in favor of holding a championship for women in 1981. It turned out to be a vote of monumental importance to the women’s movement in weightlifting in the United States and ultimately worldwide (the US is believed to have been the first nation to conduct such as championship). Now the women would finally have an opportunity to compete at the national level!

Shortly after the Committee’s historic vote, the Women’s Committee was expanded to include Sara Smith and Dottie Schubert, in addition to Mabel and Judy. The group’s first important order of business would be to find a venue for the 1981 championships.

Eventually Joe Widdel, of Waterloo, Iowa, agreed to hold the event, on May 23^rd of 1981. Joe had been a medalist at the men’s nationals and had run many competitions, so his ability to run a fine competition was never in doubt.

The same eight bodyweight categories that were being used in women’s powerlifting at the time would be used for the initial weightlifting nationals (in kg.):44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 75, 82.5 and + 82.5kg.

The First Women’s Nationals and Judy’s Amazing Performance There and Beyond

A total of 29 women participated in the first women’s nationals and, as some had predicted some of the performances at the competition were not at a very high level. However, there were excellent performances as well. The most outstanding of these, by far, was that of Judy Glenney.

She competed in the 67.5 kg. bodyweight category (148.75 lb.) and outlifted her nearest competitor by an incredible 50 kg. in the total. She went on to be awarded the outstanding lifter of the competition overall (using a handicapping formula which recognizes performance differences among athletes in different weight classes – with heavier lifters expected to lift more than lighter ones).

But in this particular case, such a formula was not really needed, as Judy lifted more than any other woman in the competition, even the superheavyweights by snatching more than anyone else, lifting more in the C&J than anyone else and of course totaling more than anyone regardless of bodyweight. Her actual lifts consisted of a 75 kg. snatch, a C&J of 97.5 kg. and a total of 172.5 kg.

Following that first Nationals, with Murray’s encouragement and support, Mabel began to publish a newsletter covering women’s weightlifting. The first issue was a one pager that presented the results of the first nationals. In the second such newsletter, Mabel began advertising upcoming women’s events and pushed the women to enter as many meets as they could.

Judy started contributing articles on training by the third newsletter, which had grown to eight pages. She was admired by many male and female lifters, both for the amount she lifted and for the fine technique she showed when she made her lifts, so many women were anxious to learn from her.

Mabel’s newsletters were distributed across the US, and outside the US as well, so they had an international influence.

At the following year’s nationals, in 1982, the predicted increase in competitors occurred, as a total of 46 competitors took to the platform, which was an increase of nearly 60% over the prior year. Overall, the quality of the performances was much higher as well (e.g., significantly higher winning totals and more depth in most of the bodyweight categories). Judy won her bodyweight category again, and repeated as outstanding lifter overall.

By 1983, the number of competitors at the nationals would be more than double what they had been only two years earlier. 

Judy’s Weightlifting Career After the Inaugural 1981 Nationals

After winning that first Nationals, Judy went on to win the Nationals three more times in a row, in 1982 through 1984. In addition, across her career, Judy established many women’s American records as well. Ultimately, she snatched 82.5 kg. and lifted 97.5 kg. in the C&J, in the 67.5 kg. bodyweight category. 

Glenney didn’t compete at the 1985 Sr. Nationals, and didn’t make a total at the 1986 Nationals. She placed fourth in the 67.5 kg. bodyweight category at the Nationals of 1987.

In 1988, she won a silver medal lifting in the 75 kg. category at the National Championships. This meet had a special meaning for Judy as it marked the first time the women’s nationals were held in conjunction with the men’s with the women being treated as equals to the men in nearly every respect.  

This combined format was such a success that combined championships became standard in the US from that point forward. This format had influence internationally as well, with the IWF adopting it for its World Championships beginning in 1991.

The following year, 1989, was a big year for Judy. Off the platform. She and Gary had their only child, Scott, in that year. And Judy published a book titled “So You Want To Be A Female Weightlifter”. It depicted a muscular female on the cover finishing a snatch and finishing a clean and jerk. As the title suggested, the book was targeted for women who wanted to become competitive weightlifters. It included advice on technique, training methods and a number of other subjects.

It was also in 1989 that Judy decided to step down from the leadership role on the women’s committee

Judy appeared in her last Senior Nationals, in 1990. She earned a bronze medal in the 67.5 kg. category at the age of 41.

In 1991, Glenney competed her first Master’s Nationals, which she won, beginning a five-year streak that continued through 1995. She also won the World Master’s Championship in 1997 and the World Masters Games in 1998, a competition that marked her final appearance as an athlete on the weightlifting platform.   

More About the Emergence of a Senior National Weightlifting Championships at a Single Venue

Along with the advancement of women’s lifting, a slight rift began to develop in the US weightlifting community.

Certain coaches were specializing in coaching women, or even coached women exclusively. Others did the same with men. The Women’s Nationals were held each spring, not many weeks before the men’s Nationals. Some who focused on men or women decided not to attend the event involving the other gender, pointing to such considerations as lack of funds, time-off, etc. as the reason for not attending both events. Many of those who did make the trek to both championships complained about the time and money they were spending.

These developments concerned me and many others, as we could envision, if this trend continued, a day when the men’s and women’s sports would be almost totally separate. This seemed like a very unhealthy development for a variety of reasons, and as small as the sport of weightlifting was in the US, we certainly didn’t need a split within the ranks.

The Women’s Committee had concerns in this area, and as a member of the USAW’s Board of Directors, I had the same concerns. At one of our Board meetings in 1987, I spoke on behalf of organizing a combined Men’s and Women’s Nationals in 1988 by adding a Friday to the Nationals.  

My premise was that by adding a day to the Nationals, we could have both men and women competing (there were still a number of men and women competing at the Nationals that would permit such a schedule). This would save money for those who wanted to attend both events by only adding a day of time-off to the schedules of those attending both events and it facilitated the cooperation of the two genders and their respective supporters.

There were some objections to this idea, so those who supported it proposed that we try it as a one-time test. If it didn’t work out, we could always go back to the old format the following year. Organizing the event in this way, would require the cooperation of the meet directors who had already been awarded separate 1988 championships, but both meet directors of those events agreed to the experiment. If it worked, the combined championships could be our permanent new format going forward.

This groundbreaking combined event was held in St. Louis Park, Minnesota (near Minneapolis) April 30^th. through May 2, 1988, with past USAW President Bryan Derwin hosting the event. After the competition, the doubters of the combined format were few. The vast majority said, “Why would we ever do it another way?”

By 1991, the IWF held the Men’s Jr. World Championships and Women’s World Championships were held together for the first time. From then on it followed this combined approach, except in Olympic years, when the men competed at the Olympics and no men’s world championships were held, and Women’s Worlds were held at the same time and place as the Junior World’s Championships.

The Development of and Judy’s Involvement With, the USWF Women’s Committee

Following the 1983 Nationals, Judy became the Chair of the Women’s Committee. She took on the responsibility of publishing that Mabel had been handling, to continue to advance women’s lifting worldwide. She began a series of meetings and communications with the IWF to push for an international program of women’s competitions. 

At Murray’s urging, she secured a budget of $4000 for the women’s program, to cover travel expenses, their newsletters, a postal meet and expenses associated with running the nationals. By early 1984 Glenney had written to 120 member countries of the IWF to announce a postal meet which would include the results achieved in competitions all across the world. After the event Judy pronounced it a success and promised even bigger things to come.

In the meantime, under pressure from the US (largely from Judy) and several other nations, the IWF agreed to remove its “men only” rule from its rulebook during its meetings at the 1983 Men’s World Championships. While that was a critical step in the development of women’s lifting, progress was slow.

However, there was a major development in 1986, the first women’s international weightlifting competition was hosted in the IWF headquarters city of Budapest, Hungary, on March 23. Judy did not compete in this event, but rather led the US delegation traveling to Budapest. She also served as a referee.

There were a total of 23 female lifters at the Budapest event. Athletes from the USA, Canada, China, Hungary and Great Britain participated. The US team was represented by three lifters: Colleen Colley and Giselle Shepatin, competing in the 60 kg. category, and Arlys Kovach in the 67.5 kg. category. Colleen and Giselle placed first and second with totals of 155 kg. an 145 kg., respectively, while Arlys won her category with a 165 kg. total that was exceeded only by the winner of the superheavyweight category from Hungary named Elekes Tunde, who lifted a total of 177.5 kg.

The officials of the IWF were impressed with the quality of the lifting and the audience reaction to the event. In an interview at the event, Judy Glenney expressed her hopes that a World Championship would soon be organized and speculated that Women’s lifting might become part of the Olympic Games as early as 1992.

The IWF indicated that any World Championships should have 12-15 nations participating, and attract a total of at least 90 lifters in order for the event to be considered a success. While some considered such numbers to be unattainable, Judy and her group forged ahead, offering to host the initial World Championships in the US with the full support of USA Weightlifting’s Executive Director at the time, Harvey Newton, and of course the Chair of the USAW Murray Levin. The USA’s offer was accepted.

In return for agreeing to permit the first women’s World Championships to proceed, the IWF required that it take over as the world leader in women’s weightlifting (which up until then the USA had effectively been in many respects). Judy willingly agreed to support the IWF’s assumption of leadership, as she saw it as a sign they would help to advance the development of the sport internationally, which would be crucial to achieving the full assimilation of women’s weightlifting – the symbol of which would be the inclusion of women’s weightlifting in the Olympic Games.

Participation in first Women’s World Championships exceeded the minimums the IWF had set for gauging the event’s success (100 women from a total of 22 nations competed vs. the IWF’s reported minimum standards for success of 90 women and 12 countries).

Perhaps more importantly, the event was a success for several other reasons. First, the US and a number of European nations competed, as was expected, but Chinese women dominated the event, winning six out of the seven bodyweight categories (Karyn Marshall of the US, was the only non-Chinese athlete to win an overall gold medal). Prior to the championships, many thought it would be an event not supported by nations outside North America and Europe.

In addition, the performances were much better than naysayers had predicted with the women demonstrating great strength, technical skill and fighting spirit. Perhaps as important was the atmosphere created by the athletes at the event, wherein athletes from all competing nations exhibited outstanding sportsmanship overall, quite visibly supporting each other.

I have attended many national and international events across my more than 50 years of involvement in the sport, but have never attended a championship before or since, where competitors from all countries were supporting each other to the extent we saw at that competition.

Weightlifting had always been a sport where athletes from every nation, ethnic group, religion were accepted and respected, and where almost all athletes demonstrated good sportsmanship. However, the support of the women of all nations for each other at this event was truly remarkable with women from all nations cheering each other on with great enthusiasm. These women knew they were making history, and they did their best to assure that history was a positive one. 

Once the Championships were over, talk of this being a one-time trial event ceased. And it was soon confirmed that a second Championship would be held in Jakarta, Indonesia the following year. After that, women’s weightlifting on an international level was to become a fixture.  

Another lower profile breakthrough was Judy Glenney’s participated as the first female referee at a world championships in the history of the IWF.

In 1991 Judy was promoted to become first ever women’s IWF Category 1 technical official, the highest

level in the sport (she’d been a Category 2 – the next level below Category I in 1987).

The IWF appointed Judy to its Technical Committee in 1992, in part in order to address issues related to the emerging women’s program. While serving on this committee Judy lobbied for the introduction of a women’s bar that weighed 15 kg. (as compared with the 20 kg. men’s bar that had been the standard for all competitors since the inception of women’s lifting). She and many other women felt a smaller diameter and lighter bar was appropriate to facilitate lifts for women, whose hands were on average smaller. Judy was always working on behalf of the women. 

The Final Pursuit – The Olympic Games

The Women’s World Championships were conducted every year after 1987, but one piece of the women’s Weightlifting movement was still not fully fulfilled – the inclusion of women’s weightlifting at the Olympic Games. While the IWF was generally in support of the inclusion of women’s competition at the Olympics, the IOC was not so sure.

The Olympics was already bursting at the seams with participants and the IOC was taking a hard look at any proposal that would add participants to the Games. Throughout the 1990s, women weightlifters became more and more vocal regarding the addition of women to the program of the Olympic Games.

And in 1996, at the Atlanta Games, there were protests launched in the weightlifting venue by supporters of a women’s weightlifting event of the Olympics. In the meantime, the IWF submitted a formal request to the IOC for the inclusion of women’s weightlifting in the Olympic Games.

They pointed out that the popularity of women’s weightlifting was rising around the world with 55-60 countries holding women’s events annually. They argued the inclusion of women would make the Games more colorful and contribute to increasing the number of women’s sports in the Games. They offered to create a qualification system for the upcoming 1996 Games in Atlanta (recognizing that it would take time for a women’s event to be added to the Games).

The IWF was soon involved in intense negotiations with the IOC on this issue. Between the 1996 and 2000 Games, an agreement was finally reached, one that would affect men’s weightlifting at the Games.

The IOC would permit women to compete in weightlifting at the Olympic Games only if the total number of competitors in weightlifting at the Games did not increase! That meant the men had to give up some of their spots to add women to the program. The IWF decided to accomplish this through two major changes in the sport.

First, the number of bodyweight categories would be reduced. Men’s and Women’s bodyweight categories stood at 19 in 1987, 9 for women and 10 for the men. The IWF agreed to reduce the men’s categories by two and the women’s categories by an equal number. Consequently, going forward, there would be 8 men’s categories and 7 women’s.

After years of struggle, the women finally had their Olympic debut at the 2000 Games in Sydney. It was perhaps fitting that the first gold medal ever awarded in women’s Olympic-style weightlifting competition was earned by an American, Tara Nott, lifting in the 48 kg. category at the Sydney Olympic Games (American Cheryl Haworth won a bronze medal in the 82.5+ kg. category as well).

It could be very successfully argued that no nation did more to foster women’s weightlifting earlier than the USA. It took nearly 20 years from women’s weightlifting to travel from a contentious USAW Board meeting in Florida to the Olympics in Sydney. But all great journeys begin with a single step, and that step took place in the USA. That is one of the many things about which USA Weightlifting can be very proud. 

Conclusion

Today, countless numbers of women lift in weightlifting competitions all around the world. In the US, women’s weightlifting has become so popular that it is not unusual for there to be more women competing at a national championships than men. On the international level women have achieved and maintained parity with men in terms of competitive opportunities. Even nations that are not known for their respect of women’s rights are permitting women to compete in weightlifting.

Equality for women was a long, hard but noble struggle. And it would be hard to argue that anyone struggled longer and harder than Judy Glenney to make the dream of equality a reality. Consequently, it has been gratifying to see her contribution recognized.    

An article posted on the IWF website on October 23, 2013, had the title “IWF at 30 Years of Women’s Weightlifting Oct 23, 2013”.  The article reminds readers that the IWF Executive Board first agreed unanimously, in their 1983 meeting at the World Championships, to control (support and govern) women’s weightlifting. Less than three years later, on March 23, 1986, the first women’s international  tournament sanction by the IWF took place.

The article states that Judy Glenney “Started the Women’s Weightlifting movement.”

On Aug 7, 2018 the IWF posted an article titled “Meet Judy Glenney – the Woman Behind Women’s Weightlifting”. The article indicates that Glenney always wanted to be in the Olympics. When weightlifting became her chosen sport, she realized if the Olympics were ever to happen for women in the sport of weightlifting, the women had to follow a logical progression in the development of their sport – from national championships, to world championships and only then would admittance to the Olympic Games occur.  

Once Judy became a leader in US women’s weightlifting she was connected with Tamas Ajan, then head of the IWF (a position he still held at the time the article was published). At one of their meetings he recalled that Judy said that. “They’d have a Worlds with or without the IWF.” She didn’t remember that conversation as sounding as direct or abrupt, perhaps because she didn’t see it as anything but common sense.

The leader of USA Weightlifting for much of the time when the women’s revolution was taking place, Murray Levin, said the following about Judy’s role in women’s weightlifting:

“I first met Judy in the 70s, when she was competing. There were  only about 35 women in the whole country lifting,  as the IWF Rulebook stated only males could compete.

However, our laws enabled  women in other sports to compete so women lifted unofficially.

Lifting was a passion with Judy, she truly  enjoyed the sport and was a  fierce competitor.

There  came a day, in 1980, when the outcry  was strong and a Board  meeting was held in Colorado Springs  either to formally shut them down or let them in. It  was a blind vote because many coaches did not want them in.

The vote was five and five  but I broke that  tie as President and  a new era opened for   women in the USA.

Three years later the women selected Judy to represent them and not long after she took her Category One test becoming the first woman to reach that peak.

During the organizing of the  first women’s worlds’ in 1987, in Daytona Beach, she  worked tirelessly to make it a  success…

Over the years she gave clinics travelled to many countries to assist other  women in becoming an official.

She also wrote a book on women’s training for lifting..

She is not only a first class pioneer but as a person she has  the best  moral character  you could find.. I cannot write enough good words about Judy Glenney”

As has been noted above, Judy would go on to be one of the group of women to officiate at the inaugural women’s competition at the Olympic Games in 2000. Judy had traveled a glorious road from perhaps the best female lifter in the world in 1981, to serve as an official at the first Olympic Games in which women were permitted to compete in Weightlifting.  

On February 17, 2018, the IWF published an article by Brian Oliver, one of the world’s leading journalists who covers Weightlifting journalist. It was titled “Women’s Weightlifting: A Long Journey from Naked Weigh-ins to hijab wearing heroine who inspired Iran” (available on the IWF’s website).

In that article, Oliver stated “Every female weightlifter owns a debt to Judy Glenney, who with magazine owner Mabel Rader, and former USA Weightlifting President Murray Levin, spearheaded the campaign for women to compete.”

Gottfried Schodl, who’d not been a fan of women’s weightlifting when the subject was first raised with the IWF initially, wrote to Judy after the first Women’s Worlds, expressing gratitude for her work on behalf of women’s weightlifting saying “…I would like to thank you for your long and strong efforts in the interest of women’s weightlifting and I feel sure that all your strong women around the world will join my gratitude.”

I think Gotfried would be deeply gratified to know that his hope and prediction have come true and Judy has indeed received at least some of the recognition she so richly deserves. Warmest congratulations Judy, may your name always be remembered in our great sport and beyond it!