Matthias Steiner is the 2008 Olympic Champion in weightlifting, in the
Super Heavyweight category.
Steiner hails from Obersulz, Lower Austria. He was trained as a
plumber. Steiner started weightlifting in 1995, and competed
internationally for Austria from 1998 to 2005.
In 2005, he married a German woman, and relocated to Germany. Since
that time, Steiner trains at the German Federal Weightlifting Center in
Leimen, and is coached by Olympic bronze medalist Frank Mantek.
Although Steiner's wife died in a car accident, he continued his
weightlifting career in Germany, and won the gold medal in the +105 kg
category at the 2008 Summer Olympics.