Obituary: 'I was pushing my abs back in with my thumbs'

Died: June 26, 2024

BEFORE the renowned Scots weightlifter John McNiven could take part in the 1974 Commonwealth Games, in Christchurch, New Zealand, he was faced with the outsize task of shedding 17 pounds in just 10 days.

McNiven, who stood a muscular 5ft 2 in tall, was already supremely fit, but losing the extra weight was agony. "Scrambled egg for breakfast and do without lunch,” he would recall. “You spent most of the day sipping one glass of water. When you showered, you'd have to watch you did not start drinking the water.

"In Christchurch, I had to be carried to a taxi and given a muscle-relaxant injection. I was crippled by cramp. My abdominals were already as rigid as a washboard when they began to ripple like bubbling toffee. It was the worst experience ever. I took two days to recover. My abs were popping out and I was pushing them back with my thumbs”. Undaunted, McNiven went on to lift bronze in the 56kg category, repeating the achievement he had recorded at the 1970 Games in Edinburgh.

He kept his Edinburgh moment of glory from his family, however. His wife, Janet, was reading the front page of the Glasgow Herald when suddenly her 11-year-old son, John jnr, yelled: "Dad's picture's on the back page!” It was the first they knew of the bronze he had won late the previous evening at Leith Town Hall. Young John took that medal to school, showing it to classmates.

In all, McNiven took part in no fewer than six Commonwealth Games, beginning with Kingston, Jamaica, in 1966. At the 1986 Games, in Edinburgh, he was, uniquely, in the same team as his son John, who had himself become a noted weightlifter.

McNiven, who has died at the age of 89, was one of Scotland's finest-ever weightlifters. He won no fewer than 25 Scottish national championships; on the global stage, he took part in 18 World Masters events and won gold in all but four of them.

As The Herald’s former athletics correspondent, Doug Gillon, once recorded, McNiven’s first two World Masters titles were by mail order, results being sent to the world federation by post. In 1985, the event went live for the first time. McNiven could not afford to go to Colorado Springs, but British Caledonian Airways responded to a story in the Glasgow Herald and sponsored him.

When he travelled abroad he was in the habit of bringing back presents for his family in Glasgow. Many of them were distinctly novel at the time: walkie-talkies from the USA, a Sony Walkman (few in this country had seen one before) and football jerseys from teams that were largely unknown in Scotland.

His peerless record also included six British open titles in three weight categories. At the British Masters Championship in 2013, he won the 62-kilo division with better totals than the winners in the two bodyweight categories above him.

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He was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours in December 1993, the same year in which he had been elected to the hall of fame in world masters weightlifting, having been inducted at the World Masters championships in Atlanta, USA.

He was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2003. He remained an active and high-profile figure in his sport, often serving as a technical director at Scottish events and British Championships.

He played a central role in organising the 1999 World Masters Championships in Glasgow, which attracted some 450 competitors, and he officiated in weightlifting events at the Commonwealth Games that took part in Glasgow ten years ago.

John McNiven was born in Glasgow’s Oak Bank Hospital on June 12, 1935, to Duncan and Bessie McNiven, of Possilpark. He did well at school and joined his local Boys’ Brigade.

Weightlifting was his lifelong passion. As a teenager he attended a gym with friends and found he enjoyed the sport. His competitive instincts were honed while he was doing his national service in Cyprus in the 1950s, when the EOKA nationalist organisation was waging an armed campaign to end British colonial rule.

(Image: The Commonwealth Games)

“I’d been married four days when I went off to Cyprus for two years, when the Suez crisis came up," he told Doug Gillon. “I got an extra 78 pence per week on active service. We lived under canvas. I managed to get a lifting bar and lifted in a tent, to pass the time. The first time I competed was when I came back.

“Sometimes it was bad, with the terrorist activity. A truck with our guys going to play cricket was blown up outside our main gate. A friend from Possilpark, who shared my birthday, was killed.”

McNiven worked with British Rail at its St Rollox works in Springburn for 22 years as he continued on his career as a weightlifter.

He competed just once in powerlifting for Britain, a forgettable experience despite the fact that he beat a European record.

"I went to Germany for the World and Euro Championships,” he told Doug Gillan in 2014. “The British team was introduced to each other, and then they say: 'Here's John McNiven, he's a weight lifter.’

“Near the end of my competition, an English guy was ahead of me. I told them that whatever he lifted, to start me 18k more, just enough to win. When he failed, they stuck 200 kilos on the bar, 18 kilos more than I needed. If I had bombed out the English guy would have won. It was completely wrong, but they would not change it. It was the British team coach's responsibility.

"When I stood over the bar, the only ones cheering me on were the Germans. I made it, more than I'd ever dead-lifted before, and took the world and European titles and the European record. Then I told coach Ron Reeves, an Englishman, I would never powerlift again for Britain.”

John McNiven was predeceased by his son John and is survived by Janet, and his children Janette and Jim.

RUSSELL LEADBETTER