Super-Heavyweight (>109 kilograms), Men

As was tradition, the heaviest men’s weight class was again contested as the last weightlifting event in Tokyo. The class was now for lifters over 109 kg bodyweight, the second highest in Olympic history after the 110 kg contested from 1972-92. Going into the final event of the Games, European lifters had not won a gold medal, which was the same scenario as Rio 2016.

As in Rio, it was down to the strongest men to change this, and once again that responsibility fell on the shoulders of the Georgian Lasha Talakhadze. In Rio he had support as the Europeans enjoyed a clean sweep of the medals but this time he was almost alone. Nevertheless, he was one of the safest gold medal bets of the Games. Talakhadze was unbeaten since Rio, and won three world and four European titles, and was also the world record holder with 264 kg in clean & jerk, 222 kg in snatch, and 485 kg in total, with the last two records achieved only in April 2021. The next best lifters in this weight class for the season were Gor Minasyan, silver medallist in the super-heavyweight class in Rio, and his compatriot Varazdat Lalayan. They finished second and third in the last European championships with 464 kg and 445 kg, respectively, but both had not been selected for Tokyo as the Armenian Weightlifting Federation was sanctioned due to the high number of doping offences. Also not present was Fernando Reis, qualification best 436 kg, as he had tested positive for doping shortly before going to Tokyo. So, the best qualified athletes at the Games after Talakhadze were Ali Davoudi, qualification best 441 kg, Man Asaad, season best 433 kg, Walid Bidani, qualification best 431 kg, and Hojamuhammet Toýçyýew, qualification best 427 kg. Unfortunately, Bidani was not able to participate as he was tested positive for COVID-19 on arrival in Japan and again one day before the competition.

Talakhadze was untouchable, and both in snatch and clean & jerk he started his attempts only when all the other competitors had already finished their lifts. Talakhadze gave a flawless performance, not missing any of his six attempts, and finally set world records in both techniques beating his own snatch, and clean & jerk records by 1 kg each and the total record by 3 kg. Silver was also a safe proposition for Davoudi, who lifted 200 kg and 241 kg for a total of 441 kg. Only the battle for bronze provided a brief challenge as Toýçyýew tried to lift 241 kg in his last attempt but failed, which secured bronze for Asaad.

The Olympic Standard for Olympic records was 204 kg for snatch, 250 kg for clean & jerk, and 449 kg for total. Talakhadze bettered these records in five of his six lifts which meant that he set eight Olympic records, only his first clean & jerk attempt was not good enough.

Asaad’s bronze was the first ever Olympic weightlifting medal for Syria, while the fifth place of David Liti was the best ever Olympic weightlifting result for New Zealand.