Stanley Anthony "Stan" Stanczyk (May 10, 1925 – July 3, 1997) was an American weightlifter. Between 1946 and 1952 he won five consecutive world titles in three different weight classes, six consecutive national titles, as well as gold medals at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

and

1951 Pan American Games The 1951 Pan American Games (the I Pan American Games) were held in Buenos Aires, Argentina between February 25 and March 9, 1951. The Pan American Games' origins were at the Games of the X Olympiad in Los Angeles, United States, where official ...

. In 1946–1949 he set seven ratified world records: four in the snatch, one 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 ...

and two in the total. Stanczyk finished second at the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

and third at the 1953 and 1954 world championships.Stan Stanczyk
sports-reference.com During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Stanczyk served in the U.S. Army for three years. He retired in 1954 and opened a

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

alley in Miami combined with a restaurant, which he ran for 27 years together with his wife Dorothy. During those years he competed in bowling, continued to lift weights, and trained other weightlifters. In 1991 he was inducted into the National Polish American Sports Hall of Fame.

References

1925 births 1997 deaths United States Army personnel of World War II American male weightlifters Weightlifters at the 1948 Summer Olympics Weightlifters at the 1952 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in weightlifting Olympic silver medalists for the United States in weightlifting American people of Polish descent Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in weightlifting People associated with physical culture Weightlifters at the 1951 Pan American Games World Weightlifting Championships medalists Medalists at the 1951 Pan American Games 20th-century American people {{US-weightlifting-bio-stub