The men's +102 kg weightlifting competition at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held on 10 August at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles.
Going into the competition, two-time Olympic champion Lasha Talakhadze of Georgia was the favourite to win, while 2024 European Champion Varazdat Lalayan of Armenia and 2023 Asian Champion Gor Minasyan of Bahrain were also among the top contenders. In the final, Talakhadze won gold, becoming the fifth weightlifter to win three Olympic gold medals. Lalayan won silver and Minasyan won bronze. Ali Rubaiawi of Iraq placed sixth but set junior world records in the snatch and the total. Placing eighth, David Liti of New Zealand set an Oceanian record in the total.
Background On 14 June 2022, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) officially announced the new weight categories for the 2024 Summer Olympics, with the total medal count reduced from fourteen to ten. The men's +109 kg category of the 2020 Summer Olympics, which was won by Lasha Talakhadze of Georgia, was adjusted as the men's +102 kg category due to the men's 109 kg category being replaced by the men's 102 kg category for these Games.
In the same year, Talakhadze had to lose weight on his doctor's advice due to the detection of a minor heart irregularity, while he also suffered from a leg injury he sustained in training. At the 2022 World Weightlifting Championships, the first eligible event during the qualification timeline, he placed first with a total of 466 kilograms despite his injury. 2016 Summer Olympic silver medalist Gor Minasyan, who changed his sporting nationality from Armenian to Bahraini that year, placed second, while Varazdat Lalayan of Armenia placed third. Talakhadze then competed at the 2023 European Weightlifting Championships, placing first in the event with a total of 474 kilograms for his seventh straight European Championship win.
Minasyan then competed at the 2023 Asian Weightlifting Championships and placed first in the snatch, clean and jerk, and total, the first time he had done so in international competition. He set new Asian records in the snatch with 217 kilograms, the second-heaviest snatch of all time, and a total of 464 kilograms. Alireza Yousefi of Iran also set a new junior world record in the clean and jerk with 246 kilograms. At the 2023 World Weightlifting Championships, Talakhadze placed first in the event with a total of 474 kilograms, 13 kilograms more than second placer Lalayan, while Minasyan placed third. This was Talakhadze's seventh straight world championship title. In the B Group (a session for lower entry weights, held before the A Group), Ali Rubaiawi of Iraq set a junior world record in the snatch with 198 kilograms, becoming the first Iraqi weightlifter to set a junior world record. Two months after the World Championships, Lalayan won his first world level gold medal at the 2023 IWF Grand Prix II with a total of 441 kilograms.
At the 2024 Asian Weightlifting Championships, 2020 Summer Olympic bronze medalist Man Asaad of Syria placed first over Minasyan by 1 kilogram, with a total of 444 kilograms. Asaad was initially 15 kilograms behind in the snatch with 192 kilograms, but lifted 252 kilograms in the clean and jerk to set a new Asian record, and won his first Asian Championship gold medal. Minasyan had only one successful attempt in the clean and jerk with 236 kilograms before failing his two subsequent attempts. The next competition was the 2024 European Weightlifting Championships, where Giorgi Asanidze, Georgia's head coach, decided to withdraw Talakhadze due to a minor trauma dealt on one of his knees. Without Talakhadze, Lalayan placed first in the category with a total of 455 kilograms for his first European Championship win. The 2024 IWF World Cup was the last competition during the qualification period. Among the athletes who decided to be entered in the start list—in order to be eligible to qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics—but did not lift in the competition were Talakhadze, Minasyan, and Asaad. There, Lalayan placed first with a total of 463 kilograms. 2020 Summer Olympic silver medalist Ali Davoudi of Iran was second, and Ayat Sharifi of Iran placed third.
Sports Illustrated predicted that Talakhadze would win, followed by Minasyan in second, and Lalayan in third.
Qualification
Qualification for every event had spots for at least twelve weightlifters coming from different National Olympic Committees (NOC). Qualification spots were eligible for the ten highest-ranked weightlifters in the IWF Olympic Qualification Ranking; the highest-ranked weightlifter representing an NOC whose continent lies outside the top ten (IWF Olympic Continental Qualification Ranking); the host nation's reserved entry; and a universality place, which allows an NOC to send athletes despite not meeting the standard qualification criteria. If a spot was still available after all continents had representation in the top ten, the host nation did not send an entry, a universality place was not used, or any combination of the following, the quota place was allocated to the next highest-ranked eligible weightlifter.
To be eligible for the event, all weightlifters must have competed at the 2023 World Weightlifting Championships in Riyadh, 2024 IWF World Cup in Phuket, and in at least three qualifying tournaments. Apart from two compulsory events, the host country France and those eligible for universality places may have competed in a minimum of two qualifying tournaments. For the men's +102 kg category, twelve athletes qualified for the event with the absence of a host entry and a universality slot. Eduard Ziaziulin, competing for the Individual Neutral Athletes, was originally in the top ten but was removed from the ranking after being declared ineligible to compete by the IWF. Kamil Kučera of the Czech Republic and Mart Seim of Estonia were reallocated the spots due to the absence of a weightlifter in the top ten, a host entry, and a universality slot.
+Qualified weightlifters Weightlifter Country Total (kg) Qualification Lasha Talakhadze 474 Ranking Gor Minasyan 464 Ranking Varazdat Lalayan 463 Ranking Ali Davoudi 454 Ranking Man Asaad 445 Ranking Abdelrahman El-Sayed 433 Ranking Ali Rubaiawi 427 Ranking Walid Bidani 426 Ranking Eishiro Murakami 421 Ranking David Liti 413 Continental ranking Kamil Kučera 411 Reallocation Mart Seim 410 Reallocation
Records The world records before the competition were all set by Talakhadze at the 2021 World Weightlifting Championships, with a snatch of 225 kilograms and a clean and jerk of 267 kilograms, for a total of 492 kilograms. With these lifts, Talakhadze would own all of the all-time senior world records in the super-heavyweight category after surpassing his previous world records and the 266 kilogram clean and jerk set by Leonid Taranenko. The Olympic records made before the restructuring of the event were all set by Talakhadze at the previous Summer Games. He lifted a snatch of 223 kilograms and a clean and jerk of 265 kilograms for a total of 488 kilograms, which were also world records before his stint at the 2021 World Weightlifting Championships.
Results The event was held on 10 August, starting at 8:30 p.m., at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. Bidani was eliminated during the snatch portion of the event after failing two of his attempts before declining a third one due to a knee injury. Kučera, the oldest weightlifter at the Summer Games, had the lightest snatch of the event at 110 kilograms, owing it to recovery from a laparoscopy done on his abdomen a month before the Summer Games.
Minasyan had the heaviest snatch at 216 kilograms while Lalayan and Talakhadze tied for the second-heaviest with 215 kilograms; Rubaiawi broke the junior world record in the snatch with 200 kilograms. In the clean and jerks, Kučera would also have the lightest lift, lifting 140 kilograms, while Talakhadze lifted 255 kilograms as the heaviest of the event; Minasyan had the third-heaviest of the event at 245 kilograms while Lalayan had the second-heaviest at 252 kilograms, failing his last attempt at 256 kilograms to overtake Talakhadze.
With a total of 470 kilograms, Talakhadze won his third Olympic title, becoming the fifth weightlifter to win three Olympic gold medals after Pyrros Dimas of Greece, Kakhi Kakhiashvili of Georgia and the Unified Team, Halil Mutlu of Turkey, and Naim Süleymanoğlu of Turkey. Lalayan and Minasyan placed second and third, respectively. Although placing sixth, Rubaiawi broke the junior world record in the total with 437 kilograms. Placing eighth, Liti broke the Oceanian record in the total with 415 kilograms. RankAthleteNationSnatch (kg)Clean & Jerk (kg)Total 1 2 3 Result 1 2 3 ResultLasha Talakhadze210215220215247255—255470Varazdat Lalayan 210215218215247252256252467Gor Minasyan210216220216 245255255245461 4Ali Davoudi 200201205205 242257257242447 5Man Asaad191 197201197 2352412532414386Ali Rubaiawi 195195200200 JWR230237247237437 JWR7Abdelrahman El-Sayed 1781831901832252332332334168David Liti 178 182184184 224231235231415OR 9Mart Seim 175 180 183180 220237237220400 10Eishiro Murakami 170 180 180180 200220230220400 11Kamil Kučera 100110 —110 120140—140250—Walid Bidani190190——————
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