The birth of the modern revolving sleeve standardized Olympic barbell can be traced back to Germany when in 1905 Franz Velrum began selling the world's first plate loading barbell. In 1928 Kasper Berg of Berg Barbell began making "the first modern Olympic barbell." The Berg Barbell was used in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic games and soon thereafter York Barbell company, Jackson Barbell and others began copying, thereby standardizing the Berg Olympic barbell. Before the widespread acceptance of the Olympic barbell, resistance trainers used shot-loaded barbells with non-revolving sleeves that were, by necessity, thick handled. The Olympic barbell set, with its 1.1 inch gripping diameter width revolutionized progressive resistance training.