Name: Jack Oliver.
Age: 21.
Event: Men’s 77kg category.
Location: ExCel Arena, Docklands.
Time: August 1.
Local link: Born in Sidcup and raised in Bexleyheath, Jack is a former Eltham College student.
Career best: Set two personal best scores in the 77kg category at the 2011 world weightlifting championships.
Career high: Jack achieved the Olympic qualifying B standard after lifting 140kg in the snatch and 160kg in the clean and jerk to book his place at London 2012.
Sporting background: A member of the Europa gym in Erith along with Greenwich’s Zoe Smith, Jack began weightlifting at the age of 14 on the advice of a gymnastics coach.
He says: You can’t really get much bigger than competing in the Olympics in your own city.
The way weightlifting works the chances of getting to qualify for another Olympics is minimal because to earn Olympic spots you need to have a lot of people earning points in international competitions.
Because we don’t have many people lifting we don’t have many spots for the Olympics, so it really is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us as a weightlifter.
We say: Jack told News Shopper in February about his training regime, which involves intense sessions for six days a week.
Hopefully his hard work will pay off with a medal and he has realistic chances of claiming one.
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