Eduard Weitz (אדוארד וייץ; also "Edward"; born April 16, 1946) is an Israeli former Olympic weightlifter. Weitz was born in

Chernihiv Chernihiv ( uk, Черні́гів, , russian: Черни́гов, ; pl, Czernihów, ; la, Czernihovia), is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within ...

, in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. He was ranked in the top 5 in the Soviet Union, before he made ''

aliyah Aliyah (, ; he, עֲלִיָּה ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel, which is in the modern era chiefly represented by the Israel, State of Israel ...

'' (emigrated) to Israel in 1974.

Career

He competed for

Israel at the 1976 Summer Olympics Israel competed at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 28 competitors, 26 men and 2 women, took part in 19 events in 10 sports. Summary Israel sent to the Olympics a football team, that qualified for the second time, and 11 ind ...

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pea ...

, Canada, in Weightlifting—Men's Featherweight. Weitz placed 5th, with a combined lift of 578.7 pounds (262.5 kg; 110.0 kg in the snatch, and 152.5 kg in the

clean and jerk The clean and jerk is a composite of two weightlifting movements, most often performed with a barbell: the clean and the jerk. During the ''clean'', the lifter moves the barbell from the floor to a racked position across the deltoids, without res ...

), behind the bronze medalist Kazumasa Hirai of Japan's combined lift of 275.0 kg. It was then the closest Israel had ever come to winning an Olympic medal. At the time, he was 5-2.5 (160 cm) tall, and weighed 130 lbs (59 kg). Weitz won the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

in the featherweight division at the 1976

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...

, with a combined lift of 260 kg. He was Israel's Sportsman of the Year that year. In 1998, Weitz was honored as one of the top 50 athletes in Israel's history.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weitz, Eduard 1946 births Living people Israeli male weightlifters Sportspeople from Chernihiv Jewish Ukrainian sportspeople Soviet Jews Israeli Jews Olympic weightlifters of Israel Ukrainian emigrants to Israel Soviet emigrants to Israel Jewish weightlifters Soviet male weightlifters Ukrainian male weightlifters Weightlifters at the 1976 Summer Olympics