Louis Martin (weightlifter)


Louis George Martin was a British middle-heavyweight weightlifter.

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 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.