Vasily Ivanovich Alekseyev was a Soviet weightlifter. He set 80 world-records and 81 Soviet records in weightlifting and won Olympic gold medals at the 1972 and 1976 games.
Tamio "Tommy" Kono was a Japanese American weightlifter in the 1950s and 1960s. Kono set world records in four different weight classes: lightweight, middleweight, light-heavyweight and middle-heavyweight.
Kakhi Kakhiashvili is a Georgian-Greek weightlifter, one of only five weightlifters to have won three consecutive gold medals at Olympic Games. He won his first at Barcelona 1992, competing with the Unified Team, and later as a citizen of Greece at Atlanta 1996 and in Sydney 2000. He won three Senior World Championships, was twice a silver medalist at the Senior World Championships, and set seven world records during his career. He was named the 1996 and 1999 Greek Male Athlete of the Year.
Arkady Nikitich Vorobyov was a Soviet and Russian weightlifter, weightlifting coach, scientist and writer. He competed at the 1952, 1956 and 1960 Olympics and won one bronze and two gold medals. Between 1950 and 1960 he set 16 official world records. Later for many years he led the national team and the Soviet weightlifting program. In 1995 he was inducted into the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame.
Waldemar Romuald Baszanowski was a Polish lightweight (-67.5 kg) weightlifter. In 1969, he was chosen the Polish Sportspersonality of the Year.
David Adamovich Rigert is a retired Soviet weightlifter and weightlifting coach of Austrian ancestry. During his career he set 65 ratified world records and won an Olympic gold medal in 1976 and six world titles. In 1999 he was inducted to the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame.
Norair Nurikyan is a former Bulgarian weightlifter of Armenian descent. He is a two-time Olympic Champion and was awarded the Hero of Socialist Labor of Bulgaria and Order of the Bulgaria, First Degree titles. In 1994, Nurikyan was inducted into the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame.
Tara Nott-Cunningham is an American former Olympic weightlifter who competed for the United States in both the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. She is the only athlete to have trained for three different sports at the United States Olympic Training Center.
Yanko Rusev is a former Olympic weightlifter for Bulgaria.
Stefan Khristov Botev is an Olympic weightlifter who represented Bulgaria and later for Australia. He was coached by Ivan Abadzhiev. Botev is a two-time world and European champion, winner of the World Cup in 1988 and was voted as Bulgaria's Sportsperson of the Year in 1990. Stefan is a two-time Olympic bronze medalist - once for Bulgaria in 1992 and once for Australia in 1996. Botev is a three-time gold medalist from the Goodwill Games in Seattle in 1990.
Louis Hostin was a French weightlifter. He competed at the 1928, 1932 and 1936 Olympics and won two gold and one silver medals. Hostin also won two European titles, in 1930 and 1935, and two medals at world championships in 1937–1938. Between 1927 and 1939 he won 13 national titles and set 10 official world records: 7 in the snatch and 3 in the clean and jerk.
Imre Földi was a Hungarian weightlifter. Competing at a record of five Olympic Games, he won a gold medal in 1972 and silver medals in 1964 and 1968.
Jaan Talts is a former Estonian weightlifter. He competed for the Soviet Union at the 1968 and 1972 Olympics and won a silver and a gold medal, respectively. Throughout his career, Talts won two world and four European titles and set approximately 40 world records.
Yoshinobu Miyake is a retired Japanese weightlifter and Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Lieutenant. He won one silver and two gold medals at the 1960, 1964 and 1968 Olympics and finished fourth in 1972. He also won world titles in 1962, 1963 and 1965–66. Between 1959 and 1969 Miyake set 25 official world records, including 10 consecutive records in the snatch and nine consecutive records in the total. In 1993 he was inducted into the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame.
Kenneth Monfore "Monte" Nitzkowski was an American former competition swimmer and water polo coach. He represented the United States in the 200-meter butterfly at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, where he finished with the eleventh-best time overall. Nitzkowski acted as the U.S. water polo assistant coach at the 1968 Olympics and was appointed head coach for the 1972, 1980 and 1984 games.
Matthias Steiner is a retired Austrian-German weightlifter, and Olympic gold medalist.
Nicolae "Nicu" Vlad is a retired heavyweight weightlifter from Romania. He competed for Romania at the 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympics and won a gold, a silver and a bronze medal. He won the world title in 1984, 1986 and 1990 and European title in 1985 and 1986 and set world records in the snatch in 1986 and 1993. Between 1991 and 1996, he lived in Australia and competed for it internationally. In 2006, he was elected member of the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame. He is still especially noteworthy for achieving the heaviest-ever snatch of double-bodyweight—lifting 200.5 kg in the 100 kg class.
Kaarlo Olavi Kangasniemi is a retired Finnish weightlifter. Between 1968 and 1972 he won one Olympic, two world and two European titles in the 90 kg division, becoming the only Finnish weightlifter to win either an Olympic or world title. In the same period he set 16 ratified world records: four in the press, seven in the snatch and five in the total. He placed sixth at the 1972 Olympics and seventh in 1964. Kangasniemi was chosen as the world's best weightlifter in 1969 and as the Finnish Sports Personality of the Year in 1968 and 1969. After retiring from senior competitions in 1973 he worked as a weightlifting coach and weightlifting commentator with Eurosport; he continued competing in the masters category, winning a world title and setting a clean and jerk world record. In 1987 he was a candidate to the Parliament of Finland from the Finnish Rural Party, but was not elected. In 1998 he was inducted into the International Weightlifting Federation Hall of Fame.
Natalie Burgener is an American weightlifter. She is a multiple-time American record-holder, a four-time national weightlifting champion (2005–2008), and a resident athlete of the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She also won a bronze medal for the 63 kg division at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Norbert "Norb" Schemansky was an American weightlifter. He was the first weightlifter to win four Olympic medals, despite missing the 1956 Summer Olympics due to back problems. He won a silver medal in the 1948 Summer Olympic Games, a gold in the 1952 Summer Olympics and bronzes in the 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics.
