The men's 73 kg weightlifting competition at the 2024 Summer Olympics was held on 8 August at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles.
Going into the competition, Rizki Juniansyah of Indonesia was the favourite, while previous Olympic champion and snatch world record holder Shi Zhiyong of China and 2023 World Champion Weeraphon Wichuma of Thailand were also among the top contenders. Clean and jerk world record holder Rahmat Erwin Abdullah of Indonesia was also a favourite to win but was unable to compete for the nation due to Juniansyah's qualifying total being higher. In the final, Shi was leading by 10 kilograms after the snatch portion of the event but was eliminated after failing his clean and jerk attempts due to a back injury he sustained from a previous competition. In the end, Juniansyah won gold with a total of 354 kg, followed by Wichuma winning silver with a total of 346 kg, and Bozhidar Andreev of Bulgaria winning bronze with a total of 344 kg. Background Shi Zhiyong of China was the defending Olympic champion in the men's 73 kg. At the 2022 World Weightlifting Championships, the first eligible event during the qualification timeline, Rahmat Erwin Abdullah of Indonesia placed first, defending his 2021 world title, and broke a world record in the clean and jerk with 200 kilograms. In the same event, his teammate Rizki Juniansyah placed second. He then competed at the 2023 World Weightlifting Championships but in the men's 81 kg event. There, he set a world record with a clean and jerk of 209 kilograms. In the men's 73 kg event, Weeraphon Wichuma of Thailand won gold. At the 2023 IWF Grand Prix II, Ritvars Suharevs of Latvia placed first with a total of 341 kilograms. It was also the first competition Shi had competed in for 862 days, placing second for his first defeat in international competition.
Abdullah placed first at the 2024 Asian Weightlifting Championships and set a new clean and jerk world record of 204 kilograms. Juniansyah placed second, 10 kilograms behind Abdullah's total of 363 kilograms. At the 2024 European Weightlifting Championships, Bozhidar Andreev set new European records in the clean and jerk with 193 kilograms and the total with 348 kilograms. The 2024 IWF World Cup was the last competition during the qualification period. There, Juniansyah placed first with a new total world record of 365 kilograms, placing above Shi and displacing Abdullah out of the qualification rankings due to his total being higher than Abdullah's and due to the fact that per National Olympic Committee (NOC), only one athlete is allowed in a weightlifting event.
Sports Illustrated predicted that Juniansyah would win, followed by Wichuma in second and Shi in third. Prior to his elimination from qualification, Abdullah was a gold medal favourite for the event.
Qualification
Qualification for every event had spots for a maximum of twelve weightlifters, each coming from a different NOC. Qualification spots were allocated to the ten highest-ranked weightlifters in the IWF Olympic Qualification Ranking, the highest-ranked weightlifter representing an NOC whose continent lies outside the top ten (IWF Olympic Continental Qualification Ranking), the host nation's reserved entry, and an athlete qualifying for universality. If a spot was still available once every continent was represented in the top ten, the host nation did not send an entry, a universality place was not used, or any combination of the previous, the quota place was allocated to the next highest-ranked eligible weightlifter.
To be eligible for the event, all weightlifters must have competed at the 2023 World Weightlifting Championships in Riyadh, 2024 IWF World Cup in Phuket, and in at least three other qualifying tournaments. Apart from the two compulsory events, the entrant from the host country France and those who may be eligible for universality places had to have competed in a minimum of two other qualifying tournaments. For the men's 73 kg category, twelve athletes qualified for the event with the absence of a universality place.
+Qualified weightlifters Weightlifter Country Total (kg) Qualification Rizki Juniansyah 365 Ranking Shi Zhiyong 356 Ranking Masanori Miyamoto 350 Ranking Weeraphon Wichuma 349 Ranking Bozhidar Andreev 348 Ranking Bak Joo-hyo 345 Ranking Ritvars Suharevs 341 Ranking Muhammed Furkan Özbek 341 Ranking Julio Mayora 339 Ranking Luis Javier Mosquera 337 Ranking Karem Ben Hnia 332 Continental ranking Bernardin Matam — Host entry
Records The world records before the competition were the snatch that was set by Shi at the 2021 Asian Weightlifting Championships, the clean and jerk set by Abdullah at the 2024 Asian Weightlifting Championships, and the total set by Juniansyah at the 2024 IWF World Cup. The Olympic records in the snatch, clean and jerk, and total were all set by Shi at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Event The event was held on 8 August, starting at 7:30 p.m., at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. Suharevs was eliminated during the snatch portion of the event after failing his first two attempts and passing on his third. Bernardin Matam of France had the lightest snatch of the event at 145 kilograms while Shi had the highest with 165 kilograms; Luis Javier Mosquera of Colombia and Juniansyah tied for the second-heaviest snatch with 155 kilograms. Julio Mayora of Venezuela and Shi were then eliminated in the clean and jerk, with the latter failing to lift all three of his attempts due to a back injury he sustained at the 2021 National Games of China. Matam had the lightest clean and jerk of the event at 175 kilograms while Juniansyah lifted 199 kilograms as the heaviest of the event, setting a new Olympic record; Özbek had the third-heaviest clean and jerk of the event at 191 kilograms while Wichuma had the second-heaviest at 198 kilograms, setting a new junior world record. With a total of 354 kilograms, Juniansyah won the Olympic title. Wichuma and Andreev placed second and third, respectively, with totals of 346 kg and 344 kg. This was Juniansyah's first Olympic gold medal. + Results Rank Athlete Nation Snatch (kg) Clean & Jerk (kg) Total 1 2 3 Result 1 2 3 Result Rizki Juniansyah 155 155 162155 191 199 —199 354 Weeraphon Wichuma 148 152 152148 190 194 198198 JWR346 Bozhidar Andreev 148 152 154154 183 187 190190344 4 Muhammed Furkan Özbek 150 153 155150 189 191 191191 341 5 Luis Javier Mosquera 150 150 155155 185 185 189185340 6 Masanori Miyamoto 147 151 155151 187 187 193187338 7 Bak Joo-hyo 146 147 150147 186 187 196187 334 8 Karem Ben Hnia 145 145 149149 181 186 187181330 9 Bernardin Matam 138 142 145145 175 175 180175 320 — Shi Zhiyong 161 165 168165 191 191 191— Julio Mayora 152 156 156152 188 188 192— Ritvars Suharevs 147 147 —— — — ——
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