In the final moments of the Men’s 89-kilogram weightlifting event at the 2024 Paris Olympics, no one in the South Paris Arena was more anxious than Antonino Pizzolato.
Pizzolato, now a two-time Olympic medalist and former weightlifting world record holder, waited anxiously to find out if fate had flipped a coin in his favor. Pizzolato won a controversial bronze medal in the event, the first and only for Team Italy’s weightlifting roster at this summer’s Games.
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Antonino Pizzolato Wins Controversial Bronze Medal
Why is Pizzolato’s achievement mired in controversy? To understand, you need to know a bit about the rules of Olympic lifting.
In weightlifting, athletes are judged on their cumulative strength in two barbell exercises: the snatch and the clean & jerk. Both require athletes to hoist the bar to arm’s length overhead in one swift motion.
- Athletes are forbidden from “pressing out” the bar. Once it is above their heads, they must catch and hold it with their arms straight, and their arms must remain straight until the judges award the down signal.
Replay of Nino Pizzolato’s final attempt at 212kg C&J. Initially a no lift, overruled to good lift, giving him the bronze medal
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Like the rest of the 89’ers, Pizzolato had three chances to lift their heaviest in each discipline. Come the clean & jerks, and Pizzolato struck out twice with 212 kilograms (467.3 pounds).
To secure the controversial bronze, Pizzolato sent his bar soaring overhead on his final attempt; the judges initially invalidated his attempt because he had appeared to bend his left elbow. If the lift were taken, Pizzolato would not just miss out on the podium — he’d fail to post a Total and thus not be ranked in the Men’s 89s.
- Pizzolato collapsed on stage in tears while his coaches moved to plead with the jury to review the attempt. Minutes of deliberation passed, and then minutes more.
The announcer then informed the South Paris Arena that the jury had decided to grant Pizzolato the attempt despite what looked like a clear violation of the arm-bend rule. Fraught with emotion at sneaking into the medals at his second Olympics, Pizzolato celebrated loudly backstage.
The Community Reacts
While Pizzolato put on a valiant effort in a desperate moment, his controversial bronze medal-winning lift represents one of the most charitable judgments by a weightlifting jury in recent memory. Across social media, fans of weightlifting voiced their confusion:
- “Pizzolato no lift; Marin Robu was robbed,” claimed commenters underneath the Instagram announcement post by the International Weightlifting Federation. Moldova’s Robu would have won the bronze medal if not for the call made for Pizzolato.
- On Reddit, users voiced similar sentiments: “Another frustrating example of inconsistent judging,” said one user. “This is exactly why the press-out rule has to go,” another added.
- 2016 Olympian Petr Asayonak added on social media that Robu deserved the bronze medal.
Others were more charitable. “What Nino did was incredible,” Weightlifting House founder and commentator Seb Ostrowicz tells BarBend. “It would be great if we lived in a world of no contention over good lifts and we could just celebrate getting weights overhead.”
- “With regard to Robu, I wouldn’t be happy with the ruling if I were him.”
Robu himself certainly isn’t happy. On Aug. 10, the Moldovan took to Instagram to call for “justice to be done” in correcting what he believes to be a stark error by the Olympic referees:
- The International Olympic Committee retains the ability to strip a medalist of their award at its discretion. As of Paris 2024, weightlifting is the Olympic event with the second-highest number of rescinded medals (52; Athletics stands at number-one with 53).
- Most of the medals revoked in Olympic events are pulled as a consequence of the athlete failing a doping test.
Pizzolato did not consciously attempt to interfere with the event, nor did his coaches exploit any loophole by challenging the jury’s initial ruling. Weightlifting teams are permitted to play a single “challenge card” if they believe their athlete’s effort was ruled incorrectly. On-site reports indicate that the event jury had already decided to review Pizzolato’s lift when the Italian coaches took action.
Controversy aside, Pizzolato will depart Paris as a two-time Olympic bronze medalist (2020) and the sole Italian weightlifter to have reached the podium at this summer Games.
More Weightlifting at the 2024 Olympics
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- Hampton Morris Wins First Men’s Olympic Medal for USA in 40 Years
Featured Image: @ewfsport / Instagram
