Louis George MARTIN

Louis Martin arrived in Britain in the mid-50s having done some body building in his native Jamaica. Encouraged to enter a local heat of Mr. Universe he began lifting weights at a local gym in Derby he found that it was in that sport where his talents laid. Within two years of taking up the sport he became Britain’s first world champion when he upset overwhelming favourite Arkady Vorobyov in the mid-heavyweight division at the 1959 World Championships. Martin was consistently one of the world’s top lifter for early part of the 60s and won further world championship titles in 1962, 1963 and 1965 as well as silver medals in 1961 and in 1964 when the Olympic Games doubled as World Championships. At the Olympic Games he was defeated only by Soviet lifters in 1960 and 1964 and claimed a bronze and silver medal respectively in those years. He was also in medal contention in 1968 but failed a make a valid lift in the final clean and jerk phase. Since the European Championships were held concurrently with the World Championships in non-Olympic years his four world titles were also European Championship victories. After representing Jamaica at the 1958 British Empire Games he switched to England for the next three editions and won the gold medal all three times. Martin set a world record for total weight in 1962 and for the clean & jerk in 1965 but two other claimed records were not ratified by the governing body of the sport.