Raymond Williams, also known as Ray Williams (born September 9, 1959 in Holyhead, North Wales) is a Welsh weightlifter.
Williams was voted Young Welsh Sports Personality of the Year in 1977 after being placed in the junior weightlifting championships. He joined the army and served with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers until 2003.
Returning to the sport, Williams won the Welsh weightlifting championships in 1983 and the Celtic Nations title the following year.
Williams won the gold medal in the featherweight class at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, beating David Lowenstein of Australia and Jeffrey Brice, a fellow Welshman. He returned to form at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, equalling the world record in the 40-45 class.
In 2003, Williams was appointed as the first National Weightlifting Coach for Wales.
Famous quotes containing the words ray and/or williams:
“How false is the conception, how frantic the pursuit, of that treacherous phantom which men call Liberty: most treacherous, indeed, of all phantoms; for the feeblest ray of reason might surely show us, that not only its attainment, but its being, was impossible. There is no such thing in the universe. There can never be. The stars have it not; the earth has it not; the sea has it not; and we men have the mockery and semblance of it only for our heaviest punishment.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)
“I compare her
to a fallen leaf.
The noiseless wheels of my car
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dried leaves as I bow and pass smiling.”
—William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)