Weightlifting is a sport in which athletes compete in lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead, with the aim of successfully lifting the heaviest weights. Athletes compete in two specific ways of lifting the barbell overhead. The snatch is a wide-grip lift, in which the weighted barbell is lifted overhead in one motion. The clean and jerk is a combination lift, in which the weight is first taken from the ground to the front of the shoulders, and then from the shoulders to over the head. The sport formerly included a third lift/event known as clean and press.
Hossein Rezazadeh is an Iranian politician and retired weightlifter. Rezazadeh is a two-time Olympic champion, four-time World Weightlifting champion, and five-time Asian champion. Rezazadeh has won the Iran Sportsperson of the Year award four times, more than any other athlete in the country's history. Rezazadeh is widely considered one of the greatest weightlifters of all time.
Halil Mutlu is a former professional Turkish weightlifter with several World and Olympic championship titles. Mutlu is one of the five weightlifters who has achieved three consecutive gold medals at the Olympic Games. His weightlifting career includes five World championships, nine European championships and more than 20 world records at 52 kg (115 lb), 54 kg (119 lb) and 56 kg (123 lb) combined.
Leonid Arkadevich Taranenko is a former Soviet/Belarusian weightlifter and coach. His 266 kg clean and jerk in 1988 was the heaviest lift in competition for 33 years, until Lasha Talakhadze exceeded it, lifting 267 at the 2021 World Weightlifting Championships.
Ivan Ivanov Ivanov is a Bulgarian former weightlifter and current head coach of the national Bulgarian weightlifting teams. He claimed one gold medal at the 1992 Olympic Games, four time World Champion, and five time European Champion. He won the 1990 World Cup. Ivan also won 1991 World Cup Final in Barcelona and 1990 World Cup Final in Tainan, and in 1989 in Lisbon he finished second. In 1990, he became a gold medalist in Total and Clean, and Jerk and silver, medalist in Snatch of the Goodwill Games in Seattle. Ivanov was named the Best Weightlifter in the World by the International Weightlifting Federation for 1989 and 1990. Ivanov is also a three-time World Junior Champion and twice European Junior Champion. He was elected as the best coach of Bulgaria for 2019 by the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the country together with the trainer on rhythmic gymnastics Vesela Dimitrova.
Blagoy Blagoev is a retired Bulgarian weightlifter. Between 1976 and 1984 he claimed seven gold and five silver medals at the Summer Olympics and World and European championships. He set 18 world records. 13 of them were in the snatch. His last snatch world record was 195.5 kg in the 90 kg weight class, set on 1 May 1983 in Varna and remains the heaviest weight ever snatched by a middle heavyweight. Blagoev was twice declared the Best Weightlifter in the World by the International Weightlifting Federation - in 1982 and 1983. Blagoev was named Sportsperson of the Year in Bulgaria for 1982.
Ilya Aleksandrovich Ilyin is a retired Kazakhstani weightlifter who won four world championships. On 12 December, 2015 at the President's Cup in Grozny, Russia, Ilyin set two world records in the −105 kg class. He lifted 246 kg in the clean and jerk and 437 kg in the total. Ilyin was named IWF World Weightlifter of the Year four times: in 2005, 2006, 2014, and 2015.
Nauru competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics, that were celebrated in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. Nauru was represented by the Nauru Olympic Committee, and was the only nation out of 204 participating nations and territories that sent only a single athlete, and was one of 117 that won no medals at the Games. The sole athlete to represent the nation was Itte Detenamo, who participated in the weightlifting, and was the flag bearer in both the opening and closing ceremonies. This was the same number of athletes as at the 1996 Olympics, when Marcus Stephen represented the country in the same sport, but was a decrease from the nation's last appearance at the Games when three athletes were sent to Athens. Nauru earned a berth for the weightlifting event in the Oceania and South Pacific Olympic Weightlifting Championships in 2008 and a chance to send participants in swimming and athletics events, but chose to send only a weightlifter. Itte Detenamo competed in the Group B of heavyweight class, fifteenth and last event of the weightlifting. He did not earn a medal, but finished with a personal best.
Matthias Steiner is a retired Austrian-German weightlifter, and Olympic gold medalist.
Tatiana Yuryevna Kashirina is a Russian Olympic weightlifter, Olympic silver medalist, five time World Champion and eight time European Champion competing in the +90 kg and +75 kg categories until 2018 and +87 kg starting in 2018 after the International Weightlifting Federation reorganized the categories. On 9 September 2023, the Court of Arbitration for Sport annulled over four years of her results due to drugs offenses, stating, "All the competitive results obtained by Tatiana Kashirina from 1 April 2013 until 19 June 2017 were disqualified, with all the resulting consequences, including the forfeiture of any titles, awards, medals, points and prize and appearance money."
Antonio Krastev was a Bulgarian super heavyweight Olympic-style weightlifter best known for his 1987 heaviest ever snatch in IWF competition, at 216 kg. This was only equalled by Behdad Salimi of Iran at the 2016 Summer Olympics, and finally surpassed at the 2017 European Championships by Lasha Talakhadze, who now holds the record of 225 kg. Krastev's record was no longer official after the restructuring of the weight classes in 1993 and 1998. Krastev is a two-time world and European champion. He was also world junior champion in 1981 and runner-up in 1979. Antonio has six gold medals from World Cup tournaments and has a silver medal from the 1986 World Cup final in Melbourne. The Bulgarian giant is also a two-time Balkan champion and a ten-time Bulgarian champion - five for men and five for juniors. In 1987, he won the Golden Boot award for best performance at the European Championships in Reims, France.
Lü Xiaojun is a Chinese weightlifter. He is a three-time Olympic champion and five-time world champion competing in the 77 kg category until 2018 and 81 kg starting in 2018 after the International Weightlifting Federation reorganized the categories. He is widely considered as one of the greatest weightlifters of all time.
Chen Lijun is a Chinese weightlifter, Olympic Champion, five time World Champion and two time Asian Champion competing in the 62 kg division until 2018 and 67 kg starting in 2018 after the International Weightlifting Federation reorganized the categories.
Lasha Talakhadze is a Georgian weightlifter, holding the all-time world records regardless of weight category in the snatch, the clean and jerk, and the total since 2021.
Simon Martirosyan is an Armenian weightlifter, Olympian, two time World Champion, and two time European Champion competing in the 105 kg category until 2018 and 109 kg starting in 2018 after the International Weightlifting Federation reorganized the categories.
Angel Angelov Genchev is a Bulgarian weightlifter who competed for Bulgaria. He claimed the gold medal in weightlifting at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 67.5 kg but was disqualified after he tested positive for furosemide, an IOC banned substance. It became a scandal because earlier in the meet fellow Bulgarian weightlifter Mitko Grablev had also been disqualified, after claiming a gold medal in his division, when his drug test came back positive, also for furosemide. The Bulgarian weightlifting team was forced to withdraw midway through the Weightlifting competition. Of six athletes known to have lifted more than triple their bodyweight, Genchev's 202.5 kg world record was the heaviest ever performed in competition. Genchev is a European champion in the 75 kg category from Cardiff in 1988. He was also a bronze medalist at the 1994 World Championships in Istanbul. He won the European Cup in Reims 1986 and Miskolc 1987 with the team of Bulgaria. There he set a world record in snatch - 170 kg. Angel is a four-time World and European junior champion.
Cui Wenhua is a Chinese male weightlifter, competing in the 105 kg category and representing China at international competitions. He participated at the 1996 Summer Olympics in the 108 kg event. He competed at world championships, most recently at the 1998 World Weightlifting Championships.
Maude G. Charron is a Canadian weightlifter, who competes in the 63/64 kg category and represents Canada at international competitions. She is an Olympic and Commonwealth Games champion in the women's 64 kg division. Charron also owns the clean & jerk Commonwealth Games record, the snatch and total Canadian weightlifting records, all the Panamerican records in her weight class.
Li Dayin is a Chinese weightlifter, World Champion and Asian Champion currently competing in the 89 kg division. He has set three world records and holds the snatch junior world record in the 81 kg division, as well as the snatch and total senior world record in the 89 kg division. He won the gold medal in the men's 81 kg event at the 2022 World Weightlifting Championships held in Bogotá, Colombia.
Akbar Djuraev is an Uzbekistani weightlifter, Olympic Champion and Junior World Champion. He won the gold medal in the men's 109 kg event at the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan. He also won the gold medal in the men's 109 kg event at the 2021 World Weightlifting Championships held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
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