| | Event type
Heavyweight (>90 kilograms), Men
| Date | 19 October 1968 — 10:00-16:00 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Olympic | |
| Location | Teatro de los Insurgentes, Ciudad de México | |
| Participants | 17 from 14 countries | |
| Format | Total of best lifts in military press, snatch, and clean & jerk determined placement. Ties broken by lightest bodyweight. | |
Leonid Zhabotinsky had won the 1964 heavyweight gold medal in an upset over his Soviet teammate, Yury Vlasov, but Zhabotinsky had not been defeated since 1964 and came to Mexico City as an overwhelming favorite. His victory was an easy one, with a margin of 17.5 kg over Belgium’s Serge Reding, although Zhabotinsky took only one attempt in the clean & jerk. Reding tied American Joe Dube with 555.0 kg, but won the silver medal over Dube based on a lower bodyweight.
| Pos | Competitor(s) | NOC | K | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leonid Zhabotinsky |  URS | 572.5 | Gold | ||
| 2 | Serge Reding |  BEL | 555.0 | Silver | ||
| 3 | Joe Dube |  USA | 555.0 | Bronze | ||
| 4 | Manfred Rieger |  GDR | 532.5 | |||
| 5 | Rudolf Mang |  FRG | 525.0 | |||
| 6 | Mauno Lindroos |  FIN | 495.0 | |||
| 7 | Kalevi Lahdenranta | FIN | 492.5 | |||
| 8 | Don Oliver |  NZL | 490.0 | |||
| 9 | Piet van der Kruk |  NED | 487.5 | |||
| 10 | Terry Perdue |  GBR | 487.5 | |||
| 11 | Roger Levecq |  FRA | 477.5 | |||
| 12 | Liston Sprauve |  ISV | 467.5 | |||
| Jean-Paul Fouletier | FRA | 320.0 | ||||
| Hwang Ho-Dong |  KOR | – | ||||
| Ove Johansson |  SWE | – | ||||
| Ray Rigby |  AUS | – | ||||
| Ernie Pickett | USA | – |