Louis Martin (weightlifter)

Louis George Martin (11 November 1936 – 16 January 2015) was a British middle-heavyweight weightlifter.

Louis Martin

Martin getting married, 14 November 1964
Personal information
Born	11 November 1936 Kingston, Jamaica
Died	16 January 2015 (aged 78) Heanor, Derbyshire, United Kingdom
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	90 kg (198 lb)
Sport
Country	Jamaica, Great Britain, England
Sport	Weightlifting
Medal record Representing Great Britain Olympic Games 1960 Rome -90 kg 1964 Tokyo -90 kg World Championships 1959 Warsaw -90 kg 1961 Austria -90 kg 1962 Budapest -90 kg 1963 Stockholm -90 kg 1964 Tokyo -90 kg 1965 Tehran -90 kg European Championships 1959 Warsaw -90 kg 1961 Vienna -90 kg 1962 Budapest -90 kg 1963 Stockholm -90 kg 1965 Sofia -90 kg Representing England Commonwealth Games 1962 Perth -90 kg 1966 Kingston -90 kg 1970 Edinburgh -90 kg

Biography

Martin was born in Kingston, Jamaica, where he did some bodybuilding. In the mid-1950s he moved to the United Kingdom and started training in weightlifting.

At the 1958 Commonwealth Games he still represented Jamaica, but the next year he won a world title while competing for Great Britain. At the Summer Olympics, he won a bronze medal in 1960 and a silver medal in 1964; he failed in the last (clean and jerk) event in 1968. Between 1959 and 1965 he won four world and four European titles and set four world records, though only two became official.

He represented England and won a gold medal in the middle heavyweight division, at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Western Australia.

He went on to secure three consecutive gold medals at the Commonwealth Games, winning the gold in the middle heavyweight division at both the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica and the 1970 British Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland.

In 2018, Martin was one of the first people to be commemorated by a plaque on Derby's walk of fame.