Weightlifting

Bigger, stronger, hungrier, wider and more vigilant than ever, weightlifter Mark Henry promises to be one of the Games’ most intriguing characters, no matter that few give him a chance to win a medal today in the 108K-plus - that’s 238 pounds or more - division.

Since the Barcelona Games, where he finished 10th as a 21-year-old Olympic neophyte, Henry has grown in many ways. For one, he checks in at 414 pounds, more than 40 pounds heavier than in 1992, when he was the largest athlete in Olympic history.

Oh, what girth. Oh, what television. Last week, the boys at NBC engaged Henry in a food-eating contest with cameras rolling. Don’t you wonder who won?

Since Barcelona, Henry has established American records in the snatch, 396-3/4 pounds; clean-and-jerk, 485 pounds, and total, 881-3/4.

He is, arguably, the strongest man on the planet, having set several world power-lifting records. But all that doesn’t mean hooey in Olympic lifting, in which technique is as important as brute strength.

“My goal is to do better than I’ve ever done before and win a medal,” he says. “It’s real possible. It seems an impossible goal to everybody else.”

Henry is in tip-top shape after training for several weeks in seclusion on a small island off the coast of Nova Scotia.

Can he win a medal? Not likely. His event should be dominated by the usual Eastern European hybrids.

After the Olympics, Henry has several options, including rasslin’ in the WWF.

“I’d like to have two or three lives,” he says.