Weightlifting at the Summer Olympics

Weightlifting at the Summer Olympics
Governing body	IWF
Events	15 (men: 8; women: 7)
Games
1896 • 1900 • 1904 • 1908 • 1912 • 1920 1924 • 1928 • 1932 • 1936 • 1948 • 1952 1956 • 1960 • 1964 • 1968 • 1972 • 1976 1980 • 1984 • 1988 • 1992 • 1996 • 2000 2004 • 2008 • 2012
Medalists • Records

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.

Events

Men's events

In the early Games, all lifters competed in the same events, regardless of their individual body weights.

1896

• One hand lift
• Two hand lift

1904

• Two hand lift
• All-around dumbbell

When the sport returned to the Olympic Games in 1920, the competition was structured as a set of weight classes. The number of classes and weight limits for each class have changed several times, as shown in the following table.

1920-1936	1948	1952-1968	1972-1976	1980-1992	1996	2000-2008
Heavyweight +82.5 kg		Heavyweight +90 kg	Super heavyweight +110 kg		Super heavyweight +108 kg	Super heavyweight +105 kg
			Heavyweight 90–110 kg	Heavyweight 100–110 kg
					Heavyweight 99–108 kg
						Heavyweight 94–105 kg
				First-heavyweight 90–100 kg
					First-heavyweight 91–99 kg
						Middle-heavyweight 85–94 kg
					Middle-heavyweight 83–91 kg
		Middle-heavyweight 82.5–90 kg
						Light-heavyweight 77–85 kg
					Light-heavyweight 76–83 kg
Light-heavyweight 75-82.5 kg
						Middleweight 69–77 kg
					Middleweight 70–76 kg
Middleweight 67.5–75 kg
					Lightweight 64–70 kg
						Lightweight 62–69 kg
Lightweight 60-67.5 kg
					Featherweight 59–64 kg
						Featherweight 56–62 kg
Featherweight -60 kg	Featherweight 56–60 kg
					Bantamweight 54–59 kg
	Bantamweight -56 kg		Bantamweight 52–56 kg			Bantamweight -56 kg
					Flyweight -54 kg
			Flyweight -52 kg
5	6	7	9	10	10	8

Women's events

Women's weightlifting made its Olympic debut at the 2000 Games in Sydney, with the following weight classes:

• 48 kg
• 53 kg
• 58 kg
• 63 kg
• 69 kg
• 75 kg
• +75 kg

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union (URS)	39	21	2	62
2	China (CHN)	24	11	8	43
3	United States (USA)	16	16	11	43
4	Bulgaria (BUL)	12	16	8	36
5	France (FRA)	9	3	3	15
6	Turkey (TUR)	8	1	1	10
7	Germany (GER)	6	7	7	20
8	Greece (GRE)	6	5	4	15
9	Italy (ITA)	5	4	5	14
10	Unified Team (EUN)	5	4	0	9
11	Egypt (EGY)	5	2	2	9
12	Poland (POL)	4	6	20	30
13	Iran (IRI)	4	3	5	12
14	Russia (RUS)	3	8	10	21
15	South Korea (KOR)	3	4	4	11
16	Austria (AUT)	3	4	2	9
17	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	3	2	3	8
18	Thailand (THA)	3	0	3	6
19	Hungary (HUN)	2	9	9	20
20	Romania (ROU)	2	6	3	11
21	Japan (JPN)	2	2	8	12
22	West Germany (FRG)	2	2	3	7
23	Ukraine (UKR)	2	2	2	6
24	Cuba (CUB)	2	1	1	4
25	East Germany (GDR)	1	4	6	11
26	North Korea (PRK)	1	4	4	9
27	Kazakhstan (KAZ)	1	4	1	6
28	Belarus (BLR)	1	3	4	8
29	Estonia (EST)	1	3	3	7
	Great Britain (GBR)	1	3	3	7
31	Belgium (BEL)	1	2	1	4
32	Denmark (DEN)	1	2	0	3
33	Australia (AUS)	1	1	2	4
34	Colombia (COL)	1	1	1	3
35	Finland (FIN)	1	0	2	3
36	Croatia (CRO)	1	0	1	2
	Georgia (GEO)	1	0	1	2
38	Mexico (MEX)	1	0	0	1
	Norway (NOR)	1	0	0	1
40	Indonesia (INA)	0	2	4	6
41	Switzerland (SUI)	0	2	2	4
42	Canada (CAN)	0	2	0	2
43	Chinese Taipei (TPE)	0	1	4	5
44	Trinidad and Tobago (TRI)	0	1	2	3
45	Argentina (ARG)	0	1	1	2
	Latvia (LAT)	0	1	1	2
47	Lebanon (LIB)	0	1	0	1
	Luxembourg (LUX)	0	1	0	1
	Nigeria (NGR)	0	1	0	1
	Singapore (SIN)	0	1	0	1
	Vietnam (VIE)	0	1	0	1
52	Armenia (ARM)	0	0	4	4
	Sweden (SWE)	0	0	4	4
54	Netherlands (NED)	0	0	3	3
55	Iraq (IRQ)	0	0	1	1
	India (IND)	0	0	1	1
	Qatar (QAT)	0	0	1	1
	Venezuela (VEN)	0	0	1	1
Total		185	181	182	548

See also

• List of Olympic records in weightlifting
• List of Olympic venues in weightlifting
• World Weightlifting Championships