Birth of Argentine Olympic Weightlifter Nora Köppel
Weightlifter Nora Edith Köppel represented her native Argentina in the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympics, with her best performance occurring in 2004.
Köppel was born on May 19, 1972, in San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina. Always athletic, she started gymnastics and competing on the Argentine National Gymnastics Team when she was fifteen. She began weightlifting in her twenties.
Köppel competed in multiple World Weightlifting Championships. In the 2002 World Weightlifting Championships in Warsaw, Poland, she came in eighth in the 63-69 kg category, with a total of 222.5 points. In the 2003 World Weightlifting Championships in Vancouver, Canada, she came in eleventh in the 69-75 kg category, with a total of 235 points. In the 2005 World Weightlifting Championships in Doha, Qatar, she came in fourth in the 69-75 kg category, with a total of 260 points.
Köppel’s best performance at the Olympics was in 2004, when she achieved a 220-pound snatch and 302.5-pound clean and jerk in the 165-lb category. The snatch is the singular motion of lifting the barbell from the floor to an overhead position. The clean and jerk, similar to the snatch, involves lifting the barbell from the floor to an overhead position in two motions. In this stunt, the lifter first lifts the barbell from the floor to the shoulders and then thrusts it overhead. Köppel came in ninth in the 2004 Olympics.
Sources:
“Nora Koppel.” Nora Koppel (Weightlifting) : Prize list and results. Accessed March 21, 2023. https://www.the-sports.org/nora-koppel-weightlifting-spf7588.html.
“Nora Köppel.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, July 25, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nora_K%C3%B6ppel.