Name: John Davis
Sport: Weightlifting
Weight Class: Heavyweight
DOB: 1/12/1921
Birthplace: Smithtown, N.Y.
Hometown: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Olympic Experience
- Two-time Olympian (1948, 1952); two-time Olympic medalist (2 golds)
- London 1948, gold (heavyweight)
- Helsinki 1952, gold (heavyweight)
Personal:
Started in bodyweight training rather than weightlifting as a boy...Began training with weights after meeting weightlifter Steve Walsky, who invited Davis to train in his home gym...Began representing the York Barbell Club...Spent nearly four years in the Armed Forces...Became a world champion at 17 in the light heavyweight category, making him the youngest contestant ever to win a world weightlifting championship at that time...The only man to win world or Olympic championships in weightlifting across three decades (the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s).