Olympic weightlifting has the simplest scoreboard in sport and one of the tensest. Each lifter gets six attempts across two lifts, and the only number that matters is the total: the heaviest successful snatch plus the heaviest successful clean and jerk. There is no bracket and no second chance the next day — miss all three snatches and you are out before the second half of the session starts.

It is a sport of explosive power, precise technique and nerve, and it is governed internationally by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF).

The two lifts

The snatch comes first. The bar goes from the platform to arm's length overhead in one continuous movement, with the lifter dropping under it into a deep squat and then standing up. It is the faster, more technical lift, and it uses a wide grip.

The clean and jerk is the heavier lift and comes in two parts. First the clean: the bar is pulled from the floor to the shoulders, caught in a squat with the bar resting across the chest. Then the jerk: the lifter dips and drives the bar overhead, splitting or dipping the legs to get under it, and holds it steady with arms and legs straight.

In both lifts, the bar must be held motionless overhead with arms and legs straight before the lift counts. The men's bar weighs 20 kg and is 2.2 metres long; the women's bar weighs 15 kg and is 2.01 metres long.

How a competition works

Every lifter gets three attempts at the snatch, then a short break, then three attempts at the clean and jerk. The best successful snatch and the best successful clean and jerk are added together to make the total, and the highest total wins.

Weights change in 1 kg increments, and after a good lift the next attempt must be at least 1 kg heavier. Lifters take turns in order of the weight they have chosen, lowest first, so the bar generally rises through the session and the heaviest lifters go last. That order creates the drama of the sport: the lifter who opens light must watch rivals pass them as the bar climbs, and the final attempts of the session are almost always the heaviest lifts of the day.

The two lifts test different qualities. The snatch is the more technical lift: one continuous motion, a wide grip, and a deep squat catch leave no room for hesitation. The clean and jerk is the heavier lift, and it rewards raw leg and shoulder strength, because the bar is first pulled to the chest and then driven overhead in a second effort. Most lifters clean and jerk considerably more than they snatch, which is why the second half of a session usually decides the medals.

Three judges watch each lift. A lift is successful when at least two of the three judges show a white light; a red light means the lift failed. If two lifters finish on the same total, the one who reached that total first wins — a rule that replaced the old bodyweight tiebreak. A lifter who fails all three attempts at either lift scores no total and is out of the competition.

Weight classes

Lifters compete in bodyweight classes so that athletes of similar size face each other. From June 2025 the IWF uses eight classes per gender:

• Men: 60, 65, 71, 79, 88, 94, 110 and over 110 kg
• Women: 48, 53, 58, 63, 69, 77, 86 and over 86 kg

The Olympics uses only a subset of these classes. At Paris 2024 there were five per gender — men at 61, 73, 89, 102 and over 102 kg, and women at 49, 59, 71, 81 and over 81 kg — for ten gold medals in total. For the Los Angeles 2028 Games the programme expands to twelve events, six per gender, drawn from the IWF's 2025 classes.

Formats and major competitions

The biggest stages are the Olympic Games and the IWF World Championships, with continental championships and World Cups filling the calendar. The sport has no team event at the Olympics: medals are awarded only for individual totals.

A brief history

Weightlifting contests have existed since ancient times, and lifting was part of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, though without weight classes and with different lifts. The sport took its modern shape with the formation of the International Weightlifting Federation in 1905, and weight divisions were introduced at the 1920 Games. The clean and press, once the third Olympic lift, was dropped in 1972 because of judging problems, leaving the snatch and the clean and jerk as the two lifts contested ever since. Women's weightlifting was added to the Olympic programme at Sydney 2000.

How to follow it

Watch the opening attempts. Lifters usually open with a weight they are confident of making, and the real contest starts on the second and third attempts, when the bar is heavy enough to separate the field. A lifter who misses twice faces a brutal choice on their final attempt: take a safe weight to stay in the competition, or gamble on a personal best that could win a medal — or end their day.