Olympic weightlifting, or Olympic-style weightlifting, is a sport in which athletes compete in lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead, with each athlete vying to successfully lift the heaviest weights. Athletes compete in two specific ways of lifting the barbell overhead: these are the snatch and the clean and jerk. The snatch is a wide-grip lift, in which the weighted barbell is lifted overhead in one motion. The clean and jerk is a combination lift, in which the weight is first taken from the ground to the front of the shoulders, and then from the shoulders to overhead. The clean and press, wherein a clean was followed by an overhead press, was formerly also a competition lift, but was discontinued due to difficulties in judging proper form.
Weightlifting has been contested at every Summer Olympic Games since the 1920 Summer Olympics, as well as twice before then. It debuted at the 1896 Summer Olympics, in Athens, Greece, and was also an event at the 1904 Games.
David Mark Berger was an American and Israeli Olympic weightlifter, and one of the eleven Israeli Olympians taken hostage and killed by the Palestinian group Black September during the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics. Born and raised in the United States, Berger was a lawyer by education and had emigrated to Israel after taking part in the 1969 Maccabiah Games.
Ronny Weller is a German weightlifter who competed for East Germany and later for Germany.
Stefan Khristov Botev is an Olympic weightlifter who represented Bulgaria and later for Australia. He was coached by Ivan Abadzhiev.
At the 1972 Summer Olympics, 20 wrestling events were contested, all for men. There were 10 weight classes in Greco-Roman wrestling and 10 classes in freestyle wrestling.
Israel competed at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 28 competitors, 26 men and 2 women, took part in 19 events in 10 sports.
The weightlifting competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London consisted of six weight classes, all for men only. The bantamweight division was a newly created weight class, marking the first change to the Olympic program since 1920.
The weightlifting competition at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki consisted of seven weight classes, all for men only. The middle-heavyweight division was a newly created weight class, moving the heavyweight class up from 82.5 kg to 90 kg. The events were held at Messuhalli.
The weightlifting competition at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City consisted of seven weight classes, all for men only. The competition was held from 17 to 21 October 1968.
The weightlifting competition at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal consisted of nine weight classes, all for men only. The clean and press was dropped from the included lifts after the 1972 games in Munich, due to disagreement over proper form. The Games of 1976 were the first Olympics to start testing for anabolic steroids.
The weightlifting competition at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles consisted of ten weight classes. The 1984 Summer Olympics boycott meant that the most dominant forces in weightlifting at the time, the USSR and Bulgaria did not take part. This left the field wide open.
The weightlifting competition at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta consisted of ten weight classes.
Albania first participated at the Summer Olympic Games in 1972. They missed the next four games, three of them for political reasons due to the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott, 1984 Summer Olympics boycott and 1988 boycotts, but returned for the Barcelona 1992 Summer Olympics. They have appeared in all games since then. They made their Winter Olympic Games debut in 2006. Albania normally competes in events that include swimming, athletics, weightlifting, shooting, and wrestling. The country has not yet won an Olympic medal, and along with Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is the only European non-microstate without an Olympic medal. They have been represented by the Albanian National Olympic Committee since 1972.
Mohamed Kheir Tarabulsi was an amateur Lebanese weightlifter. At the 1972 Summer Olympics, he won the silver medal in the men's Middleweight category.
Kianoush Rostami is an Iranian Kurdish Olympian weightlifter. He competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics, in the 85 kg event, winning the gold medal and setting a new world record with a total lift of 396 kilograms.
The flyweight division has been added as the lightest weight category for the 1972 Summer Olympics. It had been contested international since 1969. Only men competed in all the weight classes.
Total of best lifts in military press, snatch, and jerk. Ties are broken by the lightest body weight.
This was the first time that the super heavyweight weight class was competed at an Olympics. The event was delayed one day due to the ongoing Munich massacre.
This article details the qualifying phase for weightlifting at the 2020 Summer Olympics. The competition at these Games includes 196 athletes. Each competing nation is allowed to enter a maximum of 8 competitors, 4 men and 4 women. The IWF released its qualification list on 28 June 2021.
