Weightlifting at the Summer Olympics
Weightlifting has been contested at every Summer Olympic Games since the 1920 Summer Olympics, as well as twice before then. It debuted at the 1896 Summer Olympics, in Athens, Greece, and was also an event at the 1904 Games.
Events
Men's events
In the early Games, all lifters competed in the same events, regardless of their individual body weights.;1896
;1904
When the sport returned to the Olympic Games in 1920, the competition was structured as a set of weight classes. The number of classes and weight limits for each class have changed several times, as shown in the following table.
Women's events
Women's weightlifting made its Olympic debut at the 2000 Games in Sydney, with seven weight classes.| Weight class | 00 | 04 | 08 | 12 | 16 | 20 | Years |
| +87 kg | - | - | - | - | - | X | 1 |
| 87 kg | - | - | - | - | - | X | 1 |
| 76 kg | - | - | - | - | - | X | 1 |
| +75 kg | X | X | X | X | X | - | 5 |
| 75 kg | X | X | X | X | X | - | 5 |
| 69 kg | X | X | X | X | X | - | 5 |
| 64 kg | - | - | - | - | - | X | 1 |
| 63 kg | X | X | X | X | X | - | 5 |
| 59 kg | - | - | - | - | - | X | 1 |
| 58 kg | X | X | X | X | X | - | 5 |
| 55 kg | - | - | - | - | - | X | 1 |
| 53 kg | X | X | X | X | X | - | 5 |
| 49 kg | - | - | - | - | - | X | 1 |
| 48 kg | X | X | X | X | X | - | 5 |
| Total | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 42 |
Medal table
As of the 2016 Summer OlympicsNations
Multiple medalists
The table shows those who have won at least 2 gold medals. Boldface denotes active weightlifters and highest medal count among all weightlifters per type.| Rank | Weightlifter | Country | Gender | Weights | From | To | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Pyrros Dimas | M | 82.5 kg / 83 kg / 85 kg | 1992 | 2004 | 3 | – | 1 | 4 | |
| 2 | Akakios Kakiasvilis | M | 90 kg / 99 kg / 94 kg | 1992 | 2000 | 3 | – | – | 3 | |
| 2 | Halil Mutlu | M | 54 kg / 56 kg | 1996 | 2004 | 3 | – | – | 3 | |
| 2 | Naim Süleymanoğlu | M | 60 kg / 64 kg | 1988 | 1996 | 3 | – | – | 3 | |
| 5 | Louis Hostin | M | 82.5 kg | 1928 | 1936 | 2 | 1 | – | 3 | |
| 5 | Tommy Kono | M | 67.5 kg / 75 kg / 82.5 kg | 1952 | 1960 | 2 | 1 | – | 3 | |
| 5 | Yoshinobu Miyake | M | 56 kg / 60 kg | 1960 | 1968 | 2 | 1 | – | 3 | |
| 8 | Arkady Vorobyov | M | 82.5 kg / 90 kg | 1952 | 1960 | 2 | – | 1 | 3 | |
| 9 | Vasily Alekseyev | M | +110 kg | 1972 | 1976 | 2 | – | – | 2 | |
| 9 | Waldemar Baszanowski | M | 67.5 kg | 1964 | 1968 | 2 | – | – | 2 | |
| 9 | Chen Yanqing | F | 58 kg | 2004 | 2008 | 2 | – | – | 2 | |
| 9 | John Davis | M | +82.5 kg / +90 kg | 1948 | 1952 | 2 | – | – | 2 | |
| 9 | Hsu Shu-ching | F | 53 kg | 2012 | 2016 | 2 | – | – | 2 | |
| 9 | Aleksandr Kurlovich | M | +110 kg | 1988 | 1992 | 2 | – | – | 2 | |
| 9 | Long Qingquan | M | 56 kg | 2008 | 2016 | 2 | – | – | 2 | |
| 9 | Hossein Rezazadeh | M | +105 kg | 2000 | 2004 | 2 | – | – | 2 | |
| 9 | Charles Vinci | M | 56 kg | 1956 | 1960 | 2 | – | – | 2 | |
| 9 | Leonid Zhabotinsky | M | +90 kg | 1964 | 1968 | 2 | – | – | 2 |