Three-time Olympic medalist Isaac “Ike” Berger recently passed away at the age of 85 according to reports from USA Weightlifting. No cause of death was given.
The American Berger won a gold medal at the Melbourne 1956 Summer Olympics in the under-60 kilograms category. He had become an American citizen just a few months before the Games. Berger was born in Jerusalem.
He also medaled in Rome 1960 and Tokyo 1964, winning a silver medal each time. His silver medal in Rome came after an epic 10-hour battle with the Soviet Union’s Yevgeny Minayev.
He held eight world record, four official and four unofficial, and was a national champion eight times for the U.S.
Nicknamed “The Mighty Jew” by Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, Berger was also the first athlete (and only until 1998) to break a world record in any sport in Israel, when he pressed 117 kilograms at the 1957 Maccabiah Games in Tel Aviv.
Throughout his career he won two World Championships at Stockholm 1958 and Vienna 1961, as well as two gold medals at the Pan American Games, in addition to his three Olympic medals. He was also the first featherweight to lift more than 360 kilograms, and the first to press double his body weight.
Berger was inducted into the U.S. Weightlifting Hall of Fame in 1965 and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1980.
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