JFIFC    $ &%# #"(-90(*6+"#2D26;=@@@&0FKE>J9?@=C  =)#)==================================================" }!1AQa"q2#BR$3br %&'()*456789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz w!1AQaq"2B #3Rbr $4%&'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz ?:%*S[uŠؔr/Z)c kFDBb*J#~u( Ǯ)cҀ*EҘ<1RT*~zLtLNtVrSO WXݪ xwOgB=?7j? dҜQjPJarl(ң @l+a1E{)ݽ vsD7a\6j/ƳACi'q0ӥ]$|Ȉ18 }*l( 0'QœOҚN=)cd@^kq{sK=)c0ϰDxiqŻ1v]OX.'ҭP2®c^UxUR@H:@k4m^[Ӗۀ~WC+XjWкҗJP7a=N+da(ٙGMh|+ ۗbh$\4W?qp'1cZZVS+k+b ub+{Z˝2(W͈61Q~C(ijr$<8<Zk }(}R9#d{rzS$&PvyҮ}2'.sEZi8éqyw8j sCFqT ?Gi_ӿ-3ősN]" D>in&qՏ~mR.n>G"iԂ[dNQ ݧ}XױW@lig"{ 0LhcO1u(pY'# B9\w76+g 66ќE#4Q}j8(K(ăT5HQOZ]-UWg펹ȉVW ݹT>$%{Yi:ѯOv>U;ǎȻ[jSmU2n Hz|N#).FWh93#?FgkuURf1o8\#e j RFp< zzH2P=f59r>SgJOStrangely enough, the very sport that had the most difficult time accepting the fact that women should perform Olympic lifting was Olympic lifting itself. Through a slow but progressive evolution of opinions and rules, women will, for the first time, be eligible for medal competition in the upcoming Olympic Games. This is a significant milestone, considering that women have been participating in Olympic lifting events for several decades, but have never been medal-eligible and for years were hampered by a set of rules that discriminated against them.<br>It took many years for the Olympic lifting federations to recognize that women needed a separate set of rules. Like male coaches who are bewildered over how to train their female athletes, the decision-makers in weightlifting dealt with the problem by having women follow the same rules as the men. This decision didn't do women any favors.<br><br>The Evolution of Acceptance<br><br>In weightlifting, each athlete is given three attempts in each of the two lifts, the snatch and the clean and jerk. The first hurdle that women faced was the rule that they must increase their weights by five kilos (11 pounds) between their first and second attempts. That may not seem like much, but it can be a major ordeal for the average female.<br>To keep the math simple, we'll use a 99-pound female who is trying to snatch her bodyweight (something that even our super-heavyweight Mark Henry didn't accomplish in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics). Our female lifter would most likely start with 83 pounds (37.5 kilos) for her first attempt, for the simple reason that anything less would be ludicrous. For her second attempt she would have to jump to at least 94 pounds (42.5 kilos), then finish with 99 pound