At the 2024 Olympics, Team China entered more weightlifters than any other country; three men and three women, the maximum team size. As of Saturday Aug. 10, China is four-for-five in weightlifting gold medals.
Liu Huanhua added a new medal to the pile when he won the Men’s 102-kilogram event in the South Paris Arena, capping off a triumphant two-year campaign for the first-time Olympian.
Liu outperformed not one, but two previous Olympic Champions to secure his place at the top of the podium. Fares Ibrahim “Meso Hassona” El-Bakh from Qatar, and Uzbekistan’s Akbar Djuraev, who migrated from the 96s and 109s, respectively.
Liu Huanhua at the 2024 Olympics
Liu sat comfortably atop the International Weightlifting Federation‘s (IWF) 102-kilogram ranking leaderboard when the qualification period closed in late spring. However, he had spent the first half of the quad bouncing across several different weight classes, from 89 to 96, before finally bulking up for the heavyweights.
Liu Huanhua | Men’s 102-Kilogram
- Snatch: 178, 183, 186
- Clean & Jerk: 220, 228x, 233x
- Total: 406
Liu matched the Olympic record on his final snatch at 186 kilograms; he needed one more kilogram to claim it.
During the clean & jerks, Team China gave Uzbekistan’s Djuraev an opportunity to claim gold by jumping from a 228-kilogram miss to 233, which allowed Djuraev to appear first and try 232.
Djuraev and Liu both missed their final attempts; Liu finished two kilos ahead of Djuraev, who beat bronze medalist Yauheni Tsikhantsou by two as well.
Liu also achieved something historic for China, a country who have run the table at the Games more than any other country in the 21st century.
- At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Team China won as many weightlifting gold medals as all other participating countries combined.
Yet China had never once won Olympic gold in men’s heavyweight weightlifting at the Olympics. That is, until Liu “Gigachad” Huanhua came along.
[Related: The Beginner’s Guide to Olympic Lifting]
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