Middleweight (≤73 kilograms), Men

After two days of women-only weightlifting events, the middleweight class was contested as the third men’s event in Tokyo. After the reorganization of the weight classes back in 2018, this class was now held for a body weight up to 73 kg. After China had already won the first two men’s events, this class also saw China’s Shi Zhiyong start as clear favourite. Shi, who won gold in Rio in the 63 kg class, was unbeaten in the 73 kg class, winning world titles in 2018 and 2019, and the Asian Championships in 2019 and 2020 (held in 2021). Before this Games he also set five snatch, three clean & jerk, and four total world records in this weight class, holding the current records in snatch with 169 kg, clean & jerk with 198 kg, and in total with 363 kg. The only other athlete to set a world record in this weight class was Won Jeong-Sik, who set a clean & jerk record back in 2018. He qualified for Tokyo, but had to withdraw shortly before the Games due to a shoulder injury. Also not present in Tokyo was Rizki Juniansyah (INA), who turned 18 shortly before the Games. He took all three junior world records in May 2021 for a season best of 349 kg, but the qualification system prevented him qualifying. Rahmat Abdullah qualified for Indonesia through the continental ranking of Asia. Also taking part was the former world junior record holder and four-time world junior champion (2016-2019) CJ Cummings, qualification best 347 kg, Julio Mayora, qualification best 349 kg, and Marin Robu, season best 339 kg, who qualified only after the retirement of Won.

The competition started early afternoon with group B with Abdullah, who only entered with 320 kg, lifting a total of 342 kg, which was the third best mark of the season and only four lifters achieved a better mark during the qualification for Tokyo. In group A, five lifters scored better than Abdullah in snatch, but three of them were not able to beat his total mark as his 190 kg in clean & jerk remained the second-best lift. Only Mayora and Briken Calja also lifted 190 kg, which gave Mayora silver, but Calja could only finish in fourth place. Nevertheless, it was still the best ever Olympic weightlifting result for Albania. Untouchable was Shi, who had already a clear margin of 10 kg after the snatch and also produced the best performance with 198 kg in clean & jerk to set the first new world record at this Games with 364 kg in total.

The Olympic Standard for Olympic records was 158 kg for snatch, 190 kg for clean & jerk, and 345 kg for total. Only Shi was able to better any of these marks, twice in snatch to finally 166 kg, twice in clean & jerk to finally 198 kg, and three times in total to finally 364 kg, which also marked a new world record.