| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men’s Weightlifting | ||
| Competitor for the United States | ||
| Pan American Games | ||
| Gold | 1999 Winnipeg | + 105 kg |
Shane Hamman (born June 20, 1972 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), is an American Olympic weightlifter.
Shane Hamman began to play soccer at the age of 6 until he was 12 years old. In his freshman year of high school, Hamman began football and was a standout for two years on the freshman and varsity squads. He also wrestled his junior year.
Hamman grew strong lifting large pallets of produce for his father's fruit market. During high school, he had broken several teenage records. He trained as a powerlifter after high school, but after seeing the 1996 Summer Olympics, he decided to switch his career to Olympic-style weightlifting.
Hamman is sometimes called the strongest man in America. Since 1997, with the exception of 2002, he has won a gold medal at every American Senior National Championship. From 2004 he holds every American weightlifting record in his class.
He competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics and finished 10th. In the qualifying for the Olympics, during the 2003 World Championships, on his final lift he single-handedly secured three spots for athletes from the U.S. in the 2004 Summer Olympics. In the Olympics, he finished 7th in his weight category,[1] setting a new American record with his total of 430 kg and his clean and jerk of 237.5 kg.
Aside from his weightlifting prowess, Hamman also plays basketball and golf. Despite his 350 pound (160 kg) frame, he can hit a golf ball 350 yards (320 m), do a standing back flip, and leap vertically three feet (0.9 m).
Hamman has retired from Olympic weightlifting, and sometimes appears as an announcer in events like the Olympics in 2008 for NBC.
Hamman is now focusing on helping others. He gives speeches at various high schools about his career and what it took to get Olympian status. Hamman also visits high schools to promote "Rachel's Challenge", a program for which he is a spokesperson.
His greatest squat was 457.5 kg[2] at the International Powerlifting Federation world championships, which is more than anyone has ever squatted in the IPF. The IPF allows relatively little supportive equipment and has very strict rules.