Weightlifting at the 1972 Summer Olympics

The 1972 weightlifting events were held at the Gewichtheberhalle, or the Weightlifting Hall, in München. Technically this was Hall 7 of the Messegelände, or Fairgrounds, in the München Olympic Park. Weightlifting was the only sport contested in Hall 7.

There was a change in the weightlifting program with two new classes added. These were the flyweight class for lifters ≤52 kg in weight, and a class termed heavyweight, for lifters ≤100 kg. The heavyweight class was intermediate between middle-heavyweight, and the heaviest class, which was given the new name of super-heavyweight. This was also the last Olympics in which there were three lifts, as the military press would be eliminated from international lifting prior to the 1976 Olympics.

There were nine classes, with the Soviet Union and Bulgaria both winning three classes, but Bulgaria won the most medals, with six. This was the first Olympics at which Bulgaria stepped forward as a weightlifting power. It was also the first Olympics in which doping positives occurred in weightlifting, with two positives – Iran’s Arjomand Mohamed Nasehi in the flyweight class, and Austria’s Walter Legel in the lightweight class. The United States did not win a weightlifting medal in München, for the first time since the 1928 Olympics, and they would never again be a weightlifting power.