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Weightlifting at the Summer Olympics 2024

The goal of weightlifting, also referred to as Olympic weightlifting, has remained the same during the thousands of years that it has been practiced: the athlete who lifts the highest weight wins.

The weightlifting games at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles in 2024 are planned from August 7 to August 11. The weightlifting program in Paris 2024 will undergo many notable adjustments, with the number of categories being reduced from 14 in Tokyo to 10.

Additionally, 120 weightlifters - an equal number of men and women will compete in each of the 10 weight classes. This is a significant decrease from the 196 weightlifters who competed in all weight classes at the previous Games.

Weightlifting Olympics History

Weightlifting was featured in the first modern Olympic Games that were held in Athens in 1896. Weightlifting was removed from the Olympic program for a few Games (1900, 1908, and 1912), but it was added back in 1920 for the Antwerp Games and has remained there ever since. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, a women's competition was held for the first time.

At the start of the 20th century, weightlifting was taken over by European National Olympic Committees, especially those in Germany, Austria, and France. Soviet athletes dominated the platform starting in the 1950s.

They continued until the 1990s, when competitors from the Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkey, Greece, and the People's Republic of China started taking home most of the available medals. Since women's weightlifting was added as an official Olympic event in 2000, China has taken over the sport.

Weightlifting Olympics Rules

Over time, the Olympic weightlifting program has seen major adjustments. The snatch and the clean and jerk are the two lifts used in competition since the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. The bar is raised in a single motion during the snatch from below the head to above it.

On the other hand, the clean and jerk involves two stages: raising the bar to the shoulders and then jerking it over the head. These incredibly tough workouts call for strong physical power and constant mental determination.

Currently, competitors must complete both lifts three times. The sum of their best performance in each lift defines their final score. The winner is the contestant who has the highest total score. Men and women will compete in five weight classes in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Weightlifting Olympics Competition Format

The International Weightlifting Federation formally revealed the revised weight divisions for Paris 2024 on June 14, 2022. There will be ten medals overall instead of fourteen. The weightlifting medal events still feature the 49 and 59 kg women's and 61 and 73 kg men's categories as of Tokyo 2020.

The top ten weightlifters in each of the ten weight classes will receive more than 83 percent of the entire quota.

The official weight classifications for men and women are:

Men's weight classes

61kg, 73kg, 89kg, 102kg, +102kg

Women's weight classes

49kg, 59kg, 71kg, 81kg, +81kg