Brief history of weightlifting in the Olympics
WEIGHTLIFTING was first featured in the first modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece in 1896.
As a means to measure strength and power, weightlifting was practiced both by ancient Egyptian and Greek societies. It developed as an internatioanl sport primarily in the 19th century and is one of the few sports in the first quadrennial meet. Except for the 1900, 1908 and 1912 editions, weightlifting has always been part of the Olympic Games.
Austria, Germany and France were always the most successful nations. However, Soviet Union’s weightlifters rose to prominence in the 1950s and stayed there until the 1990s when China, Turkey, Greece and Iran catapulted to the lead.
Weightlifting has been present at 23 editions of the Olympic Games, and has placed on the podium champions from 32 different National Olympic Committess ( NOCs) or countries.
Turkey’s and Halil Multu have each won three gold medals, like Greece’s Pyrros Dimas and Kakhi Kakhiasvilis. Hungary’s Imre Foldi and Germany’s Ronnie Weller and Ingo Steinhofel hold a special record: they participated in the Olympic Games five times.
Women started to participate only at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, with China
dominating the division since the very beginning. Chen Yanqing holds the record of having two gold medals.
The weightlifting program has evolved greatly over time. Today, weightlifters compete in Snatch and Clean and Jerk, and are placed according to their total combined result.
From the 2000 edition, men have competed in eight weight categories and women in seven. This total of 15 events remains unchanged.