Middleweight (≤77 kilograms), Men

This event was decimated by doping problems. At the 2000 Europeans, Bulgarians Zlatan Vanev and Plamen Zhelyakov had placed 1-2. Zhelyakov was the 1998 World Champion whil Vanev had won in 1997. However, by the time this event had started three Bulgarians had already tested positive in Sydney and their weightlifting team was expelled. “Food poisoning” then became rampant among former Bulgarians, as two Qataris who had transferred allegiance from Bulgaria, Saelem Nayef Badr, the former Petar Tanev and the 1999 World Champion, and Sulyan Abbas Nader, formerly Andrey Ivanov, both magically came down with stomach issues and had to withdraw.

This left Zhan Xugang of China a clear road to his second gold medal, having won the 1996 lightweight class, but he trailed Greece’s Viktor Mitrou, a former Albanian, after the snatch, and had to equal the clean & jerk world record of 207.5 kg to enable them to tie with 367.5 kg total. Zhan won the gold medal on bodyweight. Mitrou was fourth in this class in 1996 and 2004.