Kazan, Russia—German weightlifting coach Michael Vater told IronMind today, “Matthias [Steiner] will not be starting.”

Vater explained that Steiner could lift, but the decision was made to pull him out of the European  Weightlifting Championships since his training had not been going according to plan and so as not to jeopardize his chances at the World Weightlifting Championships later this year.

Steiner won the gold medal in the superheavyweight class in storybook style at the 2008 Olympics as he dethroned the leader, Evgeniy Chigishev, on the last lift of the competition.


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