Weightlifting

Weightlifting at the London 2012 Olympic Games will showcase a test of pure strength – the oldest and most basic form of physical competition.

Key facts

Venue: ExCeL

Dates: Saturday 28 July – Tuesday 7 August

Medal events: 15

Athletes: 260 (156 men, 104 women)

One of the most straightforward sports on the London 2012 Olympic Games programme is also among the most awe-inspiring. The aim of Weightlifting is simple: to lift more weight than anyone else. The result is pure sporting theatre of the most dramatic kind, and a real spectator favourite.

The basics

Competitors in Weightlifting are divided into 15 weight categories, eight for men and seven for women. The strongest competitors may lift more than three times their body weight.

Each event features two types of lift. 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.

Each lifter is allowed three attempts at the snatch and three attempts at the clean and jerk, and their best lift in each discipline counts towards their total. When a tie occurs, the athlete with the lower bodyweight is declared the winner. If two athletes lift the same total weight and have the same bodyweight, the winner is the athlete who lifted the total weight first.

Olympic Weightlifting, past and present

The heaviest individual weight lifted in Olympic competition was achieved by Hossein Rezazadeh of the Islamic Republic of Iran. At the Athens 2004 Games, Rezazadeh clean-and-jerked 263.5kg – a weight roughly equivalent to five flyweight boxers.

At London 2012, the Weightlifting competition will be held at ExCeL, a multi-purpose events venue that will host seven Olympic and six Paralympic sports during the Games.

Weightlifting
9out of 10 based on 10 ratings. 9 user reviews.