In a historic turn, weightlifter and seven-time European Champion Lasha Talakhadze (+109KG, GEO) withdrew from the final day of the 2024 European Weightlifting Championships (EWC) as he reportedly nurses a minor knee injury. This is the first time Talakhadze has retracted his name from a major weightlifting meet in his career, which began in 2010.
The 2024 EWC runs in Sofia, Bulgaria, from Feb. 12-20, 2024, and is one of the final qualifying events for the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympic Games. As of the 2024 EWC, Talakhadze leads on the men’s super-heavyweight leaderboard, so his withdrawal will not affect his chances of making it to the Games this summer.
View this post on Instagram
[Related: The Best Weightlifting Shoes for Squats, Flat Feet, & More]
In an interview provided to BarBend, Team Georgia’s head weightlifting coach, Giorgi Asanidze, said:
“Lasha has a minor trauma in one of his knees and we made this decision to mitigate the risk as much as possible. Our objective is Paris. [Talakhadze] should retain ‘the feeling of the podium’. We are looking to compete in Thailand to retain that feeling.”
Asanidze refers to the upcoming IWF World Cup in Phuket, Thailand, in April 2024. The World Cup is the final potential qualification opportunity for Paris 2024 and one of two compulsory events set by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF). “We will only withdraw from competition when [Talakhadze] is at risk of a severe physical condition. We are not anticipating that in Thailand,” Asanidze continued.
What It Means
Despite the pre-existing knee injury, Talakhadze was required to make an appearance in Sofia to weigh in for the 2024 EWC. Doing so credits Talakhadze with a fourth competition “appearance,” and his performance at the World Cup in six weeks’ time will fulfill the requirement to weigh in at five qualifying events prior to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Talakhadze, 30, has won every competition he has lifted in since 2015. During the past 15 months of the Paris Olympic Games qualification period, Talakhadze won three IWF events — the World Weightlifting Championships in 2022 and 2023, plus the EWC in 2023.
[Related: The Ultimate Guide on How To Increase Strength]
Talakhadze currently holds all three world records in the men’s super-heavyweight division:
Men’s +109KG World Records
- Snatch: 225 kilograms
- Clean & Jerk: 267 kilograms
- Total: 492 kilograms
Talakhadze’s 2021 World Weightlifting Championships (WWC) performance placed him well ahead of Bahrain’s Gor Minasyan and Armenia’s Varazdat Lalayan. However, Talakhadze has yet to match or exceed that performance from 2021, while other super-heavyweight men are closing the gap.
At the 2023 WWC in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, five athletes Totaled at or above 450 kilograms. There, last September, Asanidze remarked, “The others are closing in on Lasha,” after Talakhadze Totaled 473 kilograms.
Commentators at the 2024 EWC reported that, while Talakhadze considers his 500-kilogram Total goal to be potentially out of reach, he has “no intention” of losing an international weightlifting competition anytime soon.
Editor’s Note: Brian Oliver is an independent correspondent for BarBend. The views and opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect his own. Oliver is not directly affiliated with any of BarBend’s existing media partnerships.
Featured Image: @talakhadzelasha_official on Instagram
