Light-Heavyweight (≤76 kilograms), Women

While the four lightest women’s weight classes moved up by only 1 kg after Rio, the higher categories saw bigger changes, with the light-heavyweight class being increased by 7 kg up to 76 kg. This also made a gap of 12 kg of bodyweight between middleweight (64 kg) and light-heavy, but that was also due to the fact that, unlike the World Championships, a 71 kg class was not contested at the Olympics.

The two dominant athletes in the 76 kg class, Rim Jong-Sim and Zhang Wangli (CHN), season best 263 kg, did not participate in Tokyo. The two-time Olympic gold medallist Rim was out of the Games as PRK decided not to send a team to the Olympics due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Zhang missed the Games as China could only send four female lifters to Tokyo and she was left out of the squad. Rim was the reigning world champion from 2019, and Zhang won the last Asian championships held in April 2021. Both had also been world record holders, with Rim in snatch (124 kg) and total (278 kg), and Zhang in clean & jerk (156 kg). No other lifter in this category at Tokyo had set a world record. Also missing was Leidy Solís, qualification best 256 kg and reigning world champion in the 81 kg class, after she was cut from the squad when the Colombian Weightlifting Federation was sanctioned due to the high number of doping offences. The top athletes present in Tokyo were Neisi Dajomes, season best 261 kg, Aremi Fuentes, qualification best 250 kg, Iryna Dekha, season best 248 kg, Kim Su-Hyeon, season best 244 kg, and the reigning 71 kg world champion Kate Nye, who lifted 248 kg in that event.

After three valid lifts in snatch, Dajomes had a solid lead with 118 kg. She was followed by Dekha with 113 kg, Nye with 111 kg, Fuentes with 108 kg, and Kim with 106 kg. In clean & jerk, Dekha failed to clear 131 kg three times and was out of the competition before the other medal contenders had even started their attempts. The next to finish was Fuentes, with a best lift of 137 kg for a total of 245 kg, which was good enough for second place at that time, but she was overtaken by Nye with her next lift of 138 kg for a total of 248 kg. Dajomes lifted 135 kg, and later improved to 140 kg and 145 kg to secure the gold medal. Meanwhile Kim failed to lift 138 kg and while trying to go for bronze also missed twice at 140 kg, which left her without a valid lift in clean & jerk.

The Olympic Standard for Olympic records was 121 kg for snatch, 149 kg for clean & jerk, and 270 kg for total. None of these records were broken at in Tokyo.

Dajomes, who enjoyed a perfect competition with six valid lifts, became the first Olympic weightlifting medallist for Ecuador, the first female Olympic medallist for Ecuador ever, and only the third Ecuadorian athlete to win an Olympic medal in history. It was also the third Olympic gold medal for Ecuador after 20 km walker Jefferson Pérez in 1996, and cyclist Richard Carapaz eight days earlier at the Tokyo Games. Nye won the fourth Olympic weightlifting medal by an American woman, while the US men have been waiting since 1984 for a medal. Also, Fuentes won the fourth Olympic weightlifting medal by a woman for Mexico, while the Mexican men have never won an Olympic weightlifting medal. Finishing ninth in this event was Mahassen Fattouh who became the first ever female Olympic weightlifter for Lebanon after qualifying via the Asia Continental Ranking.