Featherweight (≤62 kilograms), Men

Zhang Xiangxiang of China had won a bantamweight bronze medal in 2000 at Sydney when he was only 17-years-old. In 2006 he won the World Junior Championship, but then injured his back. The treatment for that injury almost killed him, as a pain injection injured his spinal cord, paralyzing his respiratory system, and he lapsed into a coma. However, Zhang recovered and qualified for the 2008 Olympics after the 2005-06 World Champion, Qiu Le, was injured at the 2007 Worlds. Zhang won the gold medal in Beijing easily, posting the best lift in both snatch and clean & jerk, and winning by 14 kg over Colombian Diego Fernando Salazar. Salazar had been bronze medalist in the class at the 2006 World Championships and was a two-time Pan American Games Champion (2003/07). His medal was the first ever in Olympic weightlifting by a Colombian man, although Colombia had women win medals in both 2000 and 2004. The bronze medal in Beijing went to Indonesian Triyatno (his only name), who also won a bronze medal as a lightweight at the 2012 Olympics.