The favorites were China’s Ding Meiyuan and Poland’s Agata Wróbel, who had been 1-2 at the 1999 World Championships. Wróbel broke her own snatch world record with 132.5 kg but Ding bettered that with 135.0 kg to take the lead. Both also broke the world record in the clean & jerk, with Wróbel lifting 162.5 kg, but Ding’s 165.0 kg brought her the gold medal with a world record total of 300.0 kg – the first woman to lift 300 kg total. Bronze went to American Cheryl Haworth who weighed 139.38 kg, the heaviest woman in the competition and the second heaviest female Olympian to that date, after Polish judoka Beata Maksymowa, who weighed 145 kg in 2000.