Weightlifting has been around for thousands of years, yet the objective remains the same. The athlete who lifts the most weight wins. Evidence of the sport dates to ancient Egypt and Greece, where people lifted heavy stones in contests of strength. Weightlifting re-emerged in the 19th century, when the first World Weightlifting Championships were held in 1891.
Weightlifting generally refers to physical exercises and sports in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells or barbells. People engage in weightlifting for a variety of different reasons. These can include: developing physical strength; promoting health and fitness; competing in weightlifting sports; and developing a muscular and aesthetic physique.
Weightlifting featured at the first modern Olympic Games held in Athens in 1896. Excluded from the Olympic programme for a few editions of the Games (1900, 1908 and 1912), weightlifting was reintroduced in 1920 at the Antwerp Games and has been included ever since. A women’s competition was first held at the Sydney 2000 Games.
The Soviet Union with a total of 62 medals is the nation that has won most Olympic medals. They have won 39 Gold, 21 Silver and 2 Bronze medals. In second place is China with an identical total of 62 medals but with 38 Gold, 16 Silver and 8 Bronze medals.
Pyrros Dimas from Greece, Lu Xiaojun of China, Kakhi Kakhiashvili of Greece, Halil Mutlu of Turkey and Naim Suleymanoglu of Turkey have won three Gold Medals each.
Pyrros Dimas has won three Gold and an additional Bronze medal. Born on October 13, 1971, he is currently the technical director for USA Weightlifting, having taken that position in June 2017. Dimas has also been involved in politics as a member of the Hellenic Parliament, representing the Panhellenic Socialist Movement from 2012 to 2015.
Dimas is the most decorated Greek athlete in the Olympics and is widely considered one of the greatest weightlifters of all time, having been three times Olympic Gold Medalist (in his fourth Olympiad, a knee injury notwithstanding, he won the bronze medal), and three times World Champion. He was named the Greek Male Athlete of the Year, for the years 1992, 1993, 1995, and 1996.
Lu Xiaojun of China was born on July 27, 1984. He is a Chinese weightlifter and a three-time Olympic champion and five-time world champion competing in the 77kg category until 2018 and 81kg starting in 2018 after the International Weightlifting Federation reorganized the categories. He is widely considered as one of the greatest weightlifters of all time.
Heading into the London 2012, Lu was the heavy favorite to win. He ended up winning the gold medal in the 77kg class with a total of 379kg. His snatch of 175kg set both a world and Olympic record, as did his total of 379 kg, for the 77kg class. Due to the confusion between Lu and his opponent Lu Haojie’s family name, Lu was unable to attempt his third lift of snatch at 177kg.
At Tokyo 2020, Lu dominated the newly established men’s 81kg weightlifting competition by lifting 170kg and 204kg in the snatch and clean and jerk phases respectively for a total of 374kg to win the gold medal. By winning this title, Lu became the oldest weightlifting champion in the history of modern Olympic Games at 37.
The Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, delivered the most successful Games for American weightlifters in over two decades. The United States won multiple weightlifting medals for the first time.
China led the way with seven total gold medals, though none were as emotional or significant as the lone gold medal won by Hidilyn Diaz of the Philippines. Her win in the women’s 55kg event marked her country’s first-ever gold medal at the Olympic Games.
Katherine Vibert (nee Nye) earned the silver medal in the women’s 76kg competition with an American record total of 249 kg, even though her best snatch attempt was nullified upon review after it was spotted that she prematurely released the bar in celebration. Sarah Robles also made history with a bronze medal in the women’s 87+kg division, becoming the first American woman to win multiple Olympic weightlifting medals.
Georgian superstar Lasha Talakhadze successfully defended his title of world’s strongest man, becoming the first athlete to win consecutive gold medals in the men’s super-heavyweight division since 2004. He won ahead of Iran’s Ali Davoudi and Syrian Man Asaad, and he did so in remarkable fashion, breaking his own super-heavyweight world record in the process, lifting an incredible 223kg in the snatch and 265kg in the clean and jerk, totalling a whopping 488kg.
Olympic weightlifting is a specific type of weightlifting sport practiced at the Olympic Games, commonly referred to simply as “weightlifting.”The 15 events at Paris 2024 Olympic Games are for Men – 56kg, 62kg, 69kg, 77kg, 85kg, 94kg, 105kg and + 105kg and for Women – 48kg, 53kg, 58kg, 63kg, 69kg, 75kg and + 75kg.
Other weightlifting sports include power-lifting, kettlebell lifting, and para powerlifting – the weightlifting sport practiced at the Paralympic Games. Different weightlifting sports may be distinguished by the different ways of lifting a weight, and/or the objects lifted. Weightlifting events are key elements of strength athletics.
The Olympic weightlifting programme has greatly evolved over time. Since the Montreal 1976 Games, there have been two lifts used in competition: the snatch and the clean and jerk. In the snatch, the bar is lifted from the floor to above the head in one movement. By contrast, the clean and jerk is a two-stage action: the bar is first brought up to the shoulders before being jerked over the head. These extremely demanding exercises require exceptional physical strength and ironclad mental resolve.
Today, competitors perform both lifts three times, and their best result in each lift are combined to determine their overall score. The competitor with the highest total score is declared the winner. Men and women will each compete across five weight classes for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
