How Many British Weightlifters Have Won Olympic Medals?

British weightlifting at every level, from gym access to elite competitions, is perhaps the best it has ever been, carving a remarkable legacy lifting rubber bumper plates in a sport that often shone the spotlight elsewhere.

At the Olympic Games, the biggest possible stage for weightlifting, Great Britain placed 35th with a total of nine medals and one gold, ahead of Belarus and Belgium but behind Norway, Indonesia and Cuba. 

By comparison, Great Britain is the third most successful Olympic nation in history, behind only the United States and the Soviet Union.

Every weightlifter who competes is a credit to their craft and to their nation, but here are the six weightlifters who managed to compete with the biggest superpowers in strength athletics.

Launceston Elliot

The first ever British Olympic gold medallist, Launceston Elliot, was originally born in Mumbai before his family moved to Essex, where he became a remarkably prodigious weightlifter at a young age.

Thanks to the influence of Eugen Sandow, the father of modern bodybuilding, Mr Elliot competed at the first British Championships at just 16 years old in 1891, won his first British Championship in 1894 and became Britain’s best hope at the first Olympics in Athens.

He won Britain’s first and currently only Gold Medallist, having won the One-Handed Lift contest handily after narrowly missing out on gold in the Two-Handed lift, after Prince George of Greece judged Denmark’s Viggo Jensen to have had better form.

He also competed in the 100 metre dash, wrestling, gymnastics and eventually competed in the discus before he turned professional, retiring from the sport and becoming a popular Music Hall strongman act.

Julian Creus

Every Olympic medallist has an almost heroic story, but for Liverpool-born Julian Creus, weightlifting helped to save his life after he broke his legs falling from a rooftop.

He became a member of the Bootle Weightlifting Club, but after 14 years of lifting, he received a surprising call-up to be part of the Great British team at the London Olympic Games in 1948, the first to take place after the end of the Second World War.

He won a silver medal competing at Bantamweight, but would struggle to replicate the feat in 1952, whilst dealing with a broken foot, nor in 1956 at the age of 39.

James Halliday

The 1948 Olympic Games featured two separate British medallists, the first and only time this has happened as of 2024. 

Whilst Mr Creus’ entry was remarkable due to the hard work it took to reach that level, James Halliday had to defy what was believed to be a congenital heart condition and later survived both Dunkirk and working on the Japanese Death Railway as a prisoner of war during the Second World War.

In just two years, “Jumping Jim” regained his muscle mass and captained the British Weightlifting team, winning a bronze medal at Lightweight, jumping over the bar after each successful lift.

He later worked for the British Electricity Board.

Louis Martin

Arguably the greatest British weightlifter who ever lived, Louis Martin was born in Kingston, Jamaica, before arriving in Great Britain and finding his calling as a weightlifter.

After shockingly winning the 1959 World Championships, he was the only weightlifter in the Middle-Heavyweight division who came close to challenging the then-dominant Soviet Union throughout the early 1960s.

He won a bronze medal in 1960 and a silver in 1964, becoming a popular sporting personality for his fierce competitiveness on the platform and his affable personality off it.

He was in the running for another medal in 1968 but failed his clean and jerk lifts and was thus unclassified. He broke barriers for weightlifting and was a coach for over 30 years before passing away in 2015.

David Mercer

Competing in the Middle-Heavyweight division, the creditable David Mercer from Salford managed to shock everyone by placing third in 1984, although it must also be noted that this was the year of a boycott of the Los Angeles games by Soviet athletes, which disproportionately affected weightlifting.

Despite struggling in Seoul in 1988 against much stronger Soviet competition, he still placed a very creditable sixth.

Emily Campbell

The greatest British female weightlifter ever and in line to become the most successful British weightlifter of all time, Emily Campbell shocked everyone in 2021 by winning a silver medal in the +87kg category.

She won a second medal in Paris as Team GB’s only entrant in weightlifting, winning not only a bronze medal but the hearts of everyone watching as she did a cartwheel to celebrate and was part of a wonderful podium moment celebrating Li Wenwen’s victory.