Weightlifting

Countries	Athletes	Events
93	258	15

Schedule & Results

Weightlifting

Daily Calendar

Event

Date		Event		Status

WRWorld Record
OROlympic Record

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About

Key Facts
Rules
30-Second Expert

Aim of the game

The ultimate test of strength, athletes compete by lifting a steel bar loaded with weights over their heads – the one who lifts the most being the winner

Why should you watch this?

Just as the 100m sprint defines the world’s fastest athletes, so weightlifting identifies the world’s strongest. Demanding vast amounts of power, technique and determination, this is a sport that pushes the human body to its limits

Venues

Riocentro - Pavilion 2

International Federation

IWF

Olympic debut

Athens 1896

Collars

Metal components used for fixing the weights on the bar, they weigh 2.5kg
Weigh-in

A procedure conducted two hours prior to competition to ensure that competitors are within the reference body weight for their event
Press-out

Illegal movement in which the athlete does not fully extend the arms (elbows not ‘locked out’) when the bar is raised above the head, and the lift is finished by further extending the arms

Impress your friends

Weightlifting competitions have been held since ancient times in countries such as Greece and Egypt, where they were seen as the ultimate tests of male strength
The first weightlifting world championships took place in England in 1891, and were disputed by seven athletes from six countries
Weightlifting was part of the gymnastics programme when it was first included in the modern Olympic programme at the Athens 1896 Games. The women's competition first appeared at Sydney 2000
At Sydney 2000, Iranian Hossein Rezazadeh lifted 472kg to end the supremacy of the former Soviet states in the 105kg+ class and break the Olympic and world records
Also at Sydney 2000, Karnam Malleswari became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal, taking bronze in the 69kg category
At the London 2012 Games, 33 Olympic weightlifting records were broken by athletes from Kazakhstan, China, Colombia, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Russia
With three gold medals and one bronze, won between Barcelona 1992 and Athens 2004, Greece’s Pyrros Dimas is the athlete with the most Olympic weightlifting medals
Naim Suleymanoglu is only 1.47m tall but achieved the first of his world records aged 16 and has won three Olympic titles – plus the nickname ‘Pocket Hercules’
Chinese athletes Chen Yanqing and Liu Chunhong are the only women to have won Olympic weightlifting gold medals twice
Athletes can lift up to three times their body weight during competition
The weights used are colour-coded to indicate their weight
Athletes wear a special weightlifting belt to improve performance and prevent injury

Techniques

There are two weightlifting techniques: the ‘snatch’ and the ‘clean and jerk’, both of which comprise the Olympic event.

The snatch entails lifting the bar directly from the floor above the head in a single movement.

The clean and jerk is a two-stage movement, lifting the bar from the ground to shoulder height, and then lifting it above the head.

Each athlete is allowed three attempts to perform each technique and the final score is the combined total of the highest two successful attempts.

Weights

The weights placed on the extremities of the bar determine the weight lifted by the competitor. Between one successful attempt and another, the weight is increased by at least 1kg.