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Story: Bodybuilding, weightlifting and powerlifting

Bodybuilding weightlifters, 1955

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Bodybuilding weightlifters, 1955

Bodybuilders from a Wellington weightlifting club strike a pose. In the 1940s and 1950s bodybuilding contests such as Mr New Zealand were generally held as sections of weightlifting competitions.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)

Reference: EP/1955/2155-F

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Peter Clayworth, Bodybuilding, weightlifting and powerlifting – Bodybuilding, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/40878/bodybuilding-weightlifters-1955 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Peter Clayworth, published 19 February 2013, updated 27 January 2015.