Sammy Dalzell became one of the first two Irish weightlifters to compete at the Olympic Games when he took part in the 1960 Rome Olympic Games – the first occasion the sport appeared under Irish colours.

From Sherbrooke Street on the Lower Shankill in Belfast and a member of the Shankill Barbell Club, Dalzell brought an international record to his Olympic selection: a fifth-place finish in the bantamweight division at the 1958 Empire Games.

In Rome, having been entered in the bantamweight class, he was required to compete in the featherweight category after failing to make the bantamweight limit, finishing 22nd. He and Tommy Hayden were pioneering figures in the history of Irish Olympic weightlifting.