RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS OF ACHIEVEMENTS OF WOMEN WEIGHTLIFTERS AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES

PURPOSE: Women’s Olympic weightlifting became a part of the program of the Olympic Games at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. The Bulgarian weightlifting school has been very successful in preparing elite female weightlifters since its very introduction. This review aimed to assess and rank the results of the Bulgarian female weightlifters at the Olympic Games held between 2000 and 2016. METHODS: Rankings of the Bulgarian female weightlifters at the Olympic Games were analyzed and compared by both absolute weight and values corrected by the Sinclair coefficient. RESULTS: A positive trend in results for both competitive movements was found. Results in the clean and jerk were better on average than those in the snatch. We consider the higher performances of female weightlifters measured in the weight class of 69 kg as an indicator of evolution in their results during recent years. CONCLUSIONS: The Bulgarian school in women’s Olympic weightlifting established a tradition in preparing elite weightlifters during the last 18 years. To preserve this positive trend, coaches should base the sports selection process for young female weightlifters on scientific grounds.


INTRODUCTION
Women's weightlifting officially became a part of the Olympics program at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2000. The Bulgarian Weightlifting School is well acknowledged for imposing standards for successful performance at major competitions over the years. In this article, we studied the performance of the Bulgarian female weightlifters between 2000 and 2016. Their results at the Olympic Games were analyzed and compared in both absolute values and Sinclair coefficients. We found an ascending trend in the results of our athletes in this most respected international event (1,2). The popularity of women's participation in the Olympic movement always provoked a great public interest regarding developing and promoting women's sports in general. Athletes' pursuit of high sports results and their successful participation in the Olympic Games increase the significance of women's sport _________________________ internationally (3)(4)(5). Globally, women's weightlifting was first established as an organized sport discipline back in 1987 (6,7). In our opinion, we do not have to exhaustively analyze world record statistics to access the evolution of women's records: it is enough to compare only some figures from the early years of women's Olympic weightlifting (8,9). In 1996, the International Olympic Committee voted to accept women's weightlifting in the Olympic family and the first Olympic contest in women's weightlifting took place in Sydney in 2000. In recent years, the Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation has been attempting to do everything possible to provide the best training conditions for elite female weightlifters. The increase in the number of women actively practicing this sport and the improvement in the quality of training inspired researchers to study the performance of both the most successful Bulgarian lifters and recreational athletes (10,11).
With the present study we aimed to analyze the performance and rankings of the Bulgarian female weightlifters on the Olympic Games held between 2000 and 2016.

METHODOLOGY
We set the following objectives: 1. To study rankings of the Bulgarian lifters at the Olympic Games. 2. To measure the ratio between successful and unsuccessful attempts of the Bulgarian weightlifters at the Olympic Games. 3. To determine how successful our athletes' attempts were at the Olympic Games. 4. To compare the performance data from the Olympic Games according to the Sinclair point system in some weight classes. 5. To evaluate sports achievements at the Olympic Games according to the Sinclair coefficient system. Subjects of our study were female weightlifters aged 21-34 who had participated in the Olympic Games held between 2000 and 2016.
We performed a systemic-structural analysis of women's weightlifting protocols for the period. To correctly compare the achievements of female weightlifters during this period, we applied calculations based on the Sinclair coefficient as gives an accurate and realistic picture of the development of their strength abilities by correcting the data with body mass values (12,13,14).

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
The Bulgarian weightlifters participated in three of five Olympic Games held from 2000 to 2016 (15,16,17,18). Bulgaria was involved in several doping scandals in this sport in recent years and this was one of the reasons for our lifters to omit two Olympic Games during this period: the adverse effects of these events will be never be overcome by the Bulgarian athletes. 85 weightlifters from 47 countries participated at the Olympic Games in Sydney Obviously, the success rate of D. Kerkelova was higher. When Sinclair coefficients were compared, we found a tie in absolute results and a 0.82 higher Sinclair score for M. Trendafilova. The total success rate of our participants at the Olympic Games was measured at 25.93% (including the unsuccessful attempts of D. Mincheva). Data for I. Rifatova were excluded due to the stripped medal.
In 2004, at the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, the number of female weightlifters remained unchanged but four fewer countries participated.
The Bulgarian female weightlifters took part with full quotas but could not win a medal in any weight class. Compared to the previous Games, although the competition was strong, our weightlifters achieved similar success. Three Bulgarian contestants were ranked among the top six: 21year-old S. Rujinska took the fourth place, and three veterans in women's weightlifting, 33year-old I. Rifatova, 34-year-old M. Trendafilova, and Z. Atanasova ranked fifth, sixth, and twelfth respectively. Results of Slaveika Rujinska: Snatch -2 successful (110.0kg and 115.0kg) and 1 unsuccessful attempts (115.0kg)a 66.67% success rate. Clean & Jerk -1 successful (135.0kg) and 2 unsuccessful attempts (142.5kg and 145.0kg)a 33.33% success rate. Overall -3 successful, 3 unsuccessful attempts a total of 250.0 kg and a success rate is 50%. Denoted in Sinclair points -281.88.

Results of Isabella
The highest success rate was achieved by I. Rifatova and the lowestby S. Rujinska. S. Rujinska realized an outstanding result of 281.88 Sinclair points, followed by M. Trendafilova with 267.79. Most probably, the low success rate of S. Rujinska was due to the grate weights she was adding to the barbell in every successive attempt in her struggle for medals. At the 2004 Olympic Games, we achieved a total success rate of 50%, which is 24.07% higher compared to the previous Olympics. After this success, due to a new doping scandal in 2015 our athletes were not allowed to participate in big championships and this hurt Bulgarian weightlifting badly. Once again, the Bulgarian weightlifters were banned for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro due to numerous violations of anti-doping rules.
For the analyzed period, Bulgarian female weightlifters won one silver medal, two fourth, two fifth and one sixth places at Olympic Games: 1. Milka Maneva -2nd place (silver medal) 2. Milena Trendafilova -IV-th and VI-th place 3. Slaveika Ruzhinka -IV-th place 4. Daniela Kerkelova -V-th place 5. Isabela Rifatova -V-th place Since the debut of the Bulgarian female weightlifters at the Olympic Games, the undisputed leader in the history of women's weightlifting from is Milka Maneva. Figure 1 presents the average success rate of successful and unsuccessful attempts of the Bulgarian female weightlifters at the Olympic Games in percentage points. The figure shows that our athletes made fewer successful attempts -47% in both competitive exercisesa success rate of less than 50%.
Regarding individual competitive exercises, the success rate in the snatch was 54% and in the clean & jerk -46%.
Compared to the clean and jerk, we found that in the snatch athletes used to add greater weights to the barbell for their successive attempts. This strategy (which was often passed unnoticed to coaches) is most probably one of the reasons behind the great number of unsuccessful attempts they realized. According to P. Dobrev, the number of unsuccessful attempts of elite athletes participating at the Olympic Games is an indicator of tactical training mistakes (19,20). Our previous studies also corroborate these findings. Several tactical mistakes can potentially cause the world's strongest female weightlifters to be defeated at big competitions, among them: underestimation of the competitive situation in its entirety (due to psychological tension), overestimation of athlete's current shape and capabilities, lack of a concrete, realistic and flexible tactical strategy (regarding the weights the competitor should add to the bar in every successive attempt).  For the studied period, we found that the highest success rate was realized in 2012, and the lowest oneat the debut of women's weightlifting, the Olympic Games in 2000. To accurately evaluate and compare the performance of female weightlifters of different weight classes during this period we used the Sinclair coefficient. The highest Sinclaire's score was achieved in 2012 -275.93, and it was also supported by a high success rate. Although a weaker success rate (50%) was realized in 2004, we found higher Sinclaire' result -270.21 compared to this of the 2000 Olympics -262.76.
Below we present Sinclaire's points of the Bulgarian female weightlifters realized at the Olympic Games (Figure 3).