Middleweight (≤75 kilograms), Men

At the last four World Championships, 11 of the 12 medals were won by lifters from Bulgaria and the Soviet Union, with three Bulgarians winning the last four titles. The 12th medal went to a Cuban in 1981, and none of those three countries were present in Los Angeles in 1984. The biggest absence was Bulgarian Aleksandr Varbanov, who was the 1983 World Champion and the world record holder. In his absence West German Karl-Heinz Radschinsky won the gold medal over Canadian Jacques Demers. Demers was previously arrested for smuggling steroid tablets into Canada, and in 1988 he tested positive for steroids, despite having used someone else’s urine for the drug test. Radschinsky was arrested in West Germany in 1985 for possessing steroids with intent to sell. At the alternative Friendship Games, Bulgarian Zdravko Stoichkov won with a world record of 377.5 kg. Radschinsky’s gold medal winning mark in Los Angeles would have only tied for a bronze medal at the Friendship Games.