Featherweight (≤62 kilograms), Men

Naim Süleymanoğlu was the three-time defending champion but had somewhat retired after the 1996 Olympics, although he left open the possibility of a return. However, he was encouraged to come out of retirement by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch and go for a fourth gold medal. That did not last long as Süleymanoğlu missed all three snatch attempts, was out of the competition, and then retired for good. The favorites were Greece’s Leonidas Sabanis, the 1998 World Champion, Croatia’s Nikolay Peshalov, and China’s Le Maosheng, the 1999 World Champion. Peshalov had been an Olympic silver medalist in 1992 and bronze medalist as a bantamweight in 1996, but while competing for Bulgaria. He had changed allegiance to Croatia, with Croatia paying for the right to allow him to compete for them.

Peshalov took the lead in the snatch with 150.0 kg, and then extended it in the clean & jerk, equalling the world record with a total of 325.0 kg to win the gold medal. He would return in 2004 and win a fourth Olympic medal, a bronze, as a lightweight. Behind Peshalov, there was a three-way tie on total with 317.5 kg between Sabanis, Belarussian Gennady Oleshchuk, and Bulgarian Sevdalin Minchev, however Minchev was disqualified for doping for using Lasix (furosemide), a powerful diuretic often used as a masking agent to enable athletes to evade doping positives. Sabanis won the silver medal on bodyweight as Le placed fourth and missed the podium.