Light-Heavyweight (≤82½ kilograms), Men

American Stan Stanczyk had been lightweight World Champion in 1946 and middleweight World Champion in 1947, but he kept gaining weight and competed in London as a light-heavy. It mattered little as he won the class in dominant fashion, with the highest lift in all three phases of the event. In the snatch, he seemingly lifted 132.5 kg on his third attempt, but in a gesture of good sportsmanship, pointed out to the judges that his knee had touched down, negating the lift. His final victory margin of 37.5 kg would remain the greatest ever in Olympic weightlifting until 2004, when Iran’s Hossein Reza Zadeh would win the super-heavyweight division by 38.5 kg. Stanczyk returned in 1952 and won the silver medal at Helsinki, trailing Soviet lifter Trofim Lomakin.

The silver medal in London went to Hawaiian lifter Harold Sakata. He had no international record, but would become the best known of the 1948 weightlifters when he turned first to acting and later to professional wrestling, as Tosh Togo. His acting career led to his best-known role, when he played Oddjob, a villain in the James Bond movie classic, Goldfinger.