1996 United States Olympic Weightlifting Trials

1996 United States Olympic Weightlifting Trials. Civic Arena, St. Joseph, Missouri. Competitors in this video in order of appearance:
Mark Henry, Konstantine Starikovitch, Wes Barnett, Thomas Ingalsbe, Kevin Coleman.
At 12:25, video of Barnett clinching a spot on the team with a clean and jerk of 479 1/2 lbs.
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April 29, 1996
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) _ Thomas Ingalsbe and Kevin Coleman had already provided some drama as they battled for one of the last spots on the U.S. Olympic team when Wes Barnett stepped up for the final lift.

Barnett had just failed on a clean and jerk of 473 3/4 pounds in his second lift Sunday. The St. Joseph resident had one last chance to lift the same weight, and perhaps move up to fifth on the 10-member American team.

The weightlifter gambled, and he won to the delight of the crowd.

Barnett asked for more weight, going up to 479 1/2 pounds. Unlike most of the others who spent much of their allotted a minute to lift contemplating their task, Barnett strode to bar and immediately picked it up in a successful lift that moved him from seventh all the way to third on the team.

The result was yelling and cheering from the crowd of several thousand.

Third had become most important because the International Weightlifting Federation made rules changes this year that limits the number of Americans who can compete in the Summer Games in Atlanta to three.

U.S. Weightlifting Federation president Jim Schmitz is confident the IWF will award wildcard spots that will allow as many as eight and maybe 10 Americans to compete, but Barnett did not want to take a chance.

``That’s the thing,″ Barnett said, ``we don’t know if we’re going to get more spots. It’s a relief not having to wait for someone’s decision. It’s a relief to know that if we don’t get more spots, I still have my spot.″

Barnett, a member of the 1992 Olympic team, broke his own American records for the clean and jerk and for total pounds with his lift. He finished with 843 1/2 total pounds.

``I thought it was going to be easier the second time than it was, but it wasn’t,″ he said. ``There was some hesitation. The coaching staff was worried. I was worried. If I made 215 kilograms I would have passed somebody, but I knew I needed 217 to get third.″

Ingalsbe and Coleman, both superheavyweights, had battled for a spot in the bottom third of the team with Inglesbe finally winning on his third clean and jerk after Coleman missed at the same weight.

``It’s exciting. That’s probably the best I ever did,″ Ingalsbe said. ``He’s only going to get better. I want to get better too. It motivated me today. That’s for sure. It was gut-check time out there, that’s all it was. I just felt numb out there. I was on automatic.

``If you can’t have fun doing what I did today, making the team, then I don’t know what kind of person you are.″

Coleman has been involved in weightlifting for just six months after winning two NCAA shot put titles for Nebraska. He is the strength coach at Nebraska.

``It was a good competition. That’s what it is all about. You don’t want it to be a walk in the park,″ he said. ``This time Ingalsbe came out on top. I’ve only been at this six months. I haven’t had the repetitions that I need to get in. It’s new to me. I need to do a lot of technical work.″

The members of the team were picked irregardless of their weight class by a formula that measures how much more they lifted above a minimum set for each weight class.

The Olympic team consists of No. 1 Mark Henry followed by, in order, Tim McRae, 70 kilograms; Barnett; Bryan Jacob, 59 kilos; Constantine Starikovich, 108 kilos; Tom Gough, 91 kilos; Vernon Patao, 64 kilos; Pete Kelley, 99 kilos; Ingalske; and Thanh Nguyen, 64 kilos.

Henry had already qualified, but was required by the rules to make an appearance in the trials. He made one easy snatch to satisfy the rule, and then withdrew.

Starikovich, a Russian who has been a U.S. citizen for only 16 days, had been cleared to compete Friday following a dispute with the USWF. He had spent five months in Russia before returning to the United States in an apparent violation of USWF rules.