Paris 2024: Weight categories for the Olympic weightlifting competition

3 min| 14 June 2022 08:58 GMT+0
LI Fabin from the People's Republic of China with his highlight pose during Tokyo 2020 men's 61kg final
Picture by 2021 Getty Images

What's new in the weightlifting divisions ahead of the next Olympic Games? Find out the different weight classes athletes will compete in at Paris 2024. 

Ten medal events - five for men and five for women - will be contested in weightlifting at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

The weightlifting competition will take place at the South Paris Arena 6 (Paris Expo), and the competition will be held from 7 to 11 August 2024.

In line with the IOC's aim of reaching full gender equality, the number of male and female categories in weightlifting will be exactly the same for each gender: Paris 2024 will host five weight divisions for each.

As was the case at Tokyo 2020, each weight class will compete in two events: snatch, and clean and jerk.

Find out more about the weightlifting qualification system for Paris 2024.

Weight classes in weightlifting qualification events for Paris 2024

Men's weightlifting weight classes:

  • 61kg
  • 73kg
  • 89kg
  • 102kg
  • +102kg

Women's weightlifting weight classes:

  • 49kg
  • 59kg
  • 71kg
  • 81kg
  • +81kg

For each event, the athletes will have three attempts, with the best score used for the calculation of the total score and the final ranking based on the total weight lifted by the athlete.

Among the 10 weightlifting medal events, the 61kg and 73kg categories for men, and the 49kg and 59kg for women, are the only weight categories that remain from the Tokyo 2020 Games.

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What happened during the Tokyo 2020 weightlifting competition

Only four weight classes remain unchanged from Tokyo 2020, with six - three per gender - new to the Paris 2024 programme.

These changes will be significant and will reshape the landscape of the competition at the next Olympic Games, with new medal contenders coming into play.

In Tokyo, the world witnessed a dominant display by athletes from People’s Republic of China. All eight of the Chinese weightlifters won medals, including golds from LI Fabin (men's 61kg), SHI Zhiyong (men's 73kg), LI Wenwen (women's + 87kg), HOU Zhihui (women's 49kg), CHEN Lijun (men's 67kg), LYU Xiaojun (men's 81kg) and WANG Zhouyu (women's 87kg), and a silver from LIAO Qiuyun (women's 55kg).

Lasha Talakhadze of Georgia broke three world records in the men's +109kg category in Tokyo and, having lifted 488kg at those Games, may even attempt the 500kg mark in Paris.

There are also great expectations for two history-making women. In the 55kg category, Hidilyn Diaz won the Philippines’ first-ever Olympic gold medal, while Neisi Dajomes became the first Ecuadorian female to win a gold medal at the Olympics.

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