RODRIGO DEL ROSARIO (b. 11 Jun. 1917) was a 3-time Olympian from Cabangan, Zambales. Standing only 5’4”, he never won an Olympic medal but he broke Olympic and world records in his long career.
Physical culture and weightlifting were already established sports by the mid 1930s, and interest peaked when menfolk were required to do military training as a looming war approached. Del Rosario discovered weightlifting in Manila, and he came under the training of the Ben Gallegos Club which had a gym in Sta. Mesa, Manila. The Club also held regular weightlifting tournaments and fielded qualified members to the National Weightlifting Championships. It was in these championships that Del Rosario began making his mark.
At the nationals held in Cebu on 21 Mar. 1948, Del Rosario, competing in the featherweight division, managed a total of 712. 2 lbs. in 3 lifts. He also made a lift of 236.2 lbs. in the military press. These broke the world records established by American lifter Bob Higgins at the Philadelphia Championship in Sep. 1947, where he lifted 231.5 lbs. in military press, and a 3-lift total of 638.5 lbs.
His peak was at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, he came closest to winning a weightlifting medal when 110 lbs. Del Rosario placed fourth in his featherweight division. He pressed 105 lbs . in the (231 ¼ ) lbs. which was declared an Olympic Mark, surpassing the previous record of Jafar Salmasi of Iran . This also equaled that year’s world mark. His combined lifts, adding his 92.5 kilos in the snatch (203 ¾ lbs.), and 120 kilos in the jerk (264 ½ lbs), totaled 317.5 kilos (699 ½ lbs), trailing the Bronze medalist R. Wilkes of Trinidad, by just 5 pounds.
Del Rosario may have lost the Bronze by a whisker, but the record he set for the press lift remains the first and only Olympic record set by a Filipino, which caught the attention of international lifters. He reset this world record in the press lift to 108.75 kg. (or 239.75 lbs.) at the 1954 Asiad in Manila. The record, though, lasted just for 6 days, surpassed thrice by international lifters.
Like all carry-over athletes from the thirties, he continued to join competitions past his peak, finishing second in his class in the 1955 National Champioships. Del Rosario has always found the 2-hand snatch an enigma and he was unable to lift over 200 pounds, that thwarted his 1955 title hopes.
Pushing 40, Del Rosario made it to his 3rd
Olympics in Melbourne in 1956, along with fellow lifter Pedro Landero.
He failed to lift his clean and jerk portion, so he was not ranked for his incomplete
lifts.
Del Rosario became a trainer of young weightlifters and coached the 1968 Philippine Weightlifting Team to the Mexico Olympics. His last competition was in the World Weightlifting Championships in Columbus, Ohio in 1970. By dint of good luck, he was awarded 1st place in the flyweight division after the Top 3 lifters were disqualified for drug use.
After his competitive years were over, Del Rosario
took on a job as a security officer at the Rizal Memorial Stadium, where
retired athletes would congregate at the P.A.A.F. office. He continued
mentoring young weightlifters including his nephew Salvador del Rosario
who would win a world title, paving the way for a stint at the Olympics in 1968
and 1976. His son Arturo, followed suit, becoming an Olympian in
1972 and 1976.
Rodrigo del Rosario, our finest Olympic strongman, died on 10 October 2009, at the venerable age of 92.
SOURCES:
Olympedia, https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/56487
Progress 1955, Report on Postwar Sports
Abesamis, M. E. 13 Oct. 1968, The Sunday Times
Magazine, “All the Weights for Gold” 13 Oct. 1968. p. 30
1952 Official Olympic Report, LA 1984 Digital Collection
Alex R. Castro, FilipiKnow. 13 Sports Legends Who Proved Filipinos Are Kickass Athletes, https://filipiknow.net/legendary-filipino-athletes-in-sports-history/
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