At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, weightlifter Rahmat Erwin Abdullah of Indonesia surprised everyone when he snuck himself into bronze medal position from the “B” Group. Prior to that moment, no one had really heard of him. Flash forward to 2024, and Abdullah has established himself as the best middleweight Olympic lifter in the world.
At the 2024 Asian Weightlifting Championships (AWC) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which run from Feb. 3 to 10, Abdullah pulled off another astonishing feat. On Tuesday, Feb. 6, he set a new world record in the clean & jerk of 204 kilograms (449.7 pounds) in the 73-kilogram (160-pound) Group “A” session.
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Abdullah performed exceptionally well in Tashkent, facing off against snatch Junior world record holder and Indonesian countryman Rizki Juniansyah. However, Paris qualification rules stipulate that only one athlete per weight category per country may compete at this year’s Olympics. With Abdullah finishing 10 kilograms ahead of Juniansyah at the AWC, he’s all but guaranteed himself that valuable slot. Here’s how Abdullah performed on the day:
- Snatch: 153x, 157, 159
- Clean & Jerk: 192, 202, 204 | World Record(s)*
- Total: 363
*Note: Prior to this event, Abdullah held the clean & jerk record himself with 201 kilograms. He beat it on his second attempt with 202, then reconfirmed again two minutes later with his 204-kilogram lift.
Rahmat Holds the Reins
At just 23 years of age, Abdullah has quickly positioned himself as quite possibly the most dominant non-superheavyweight men’s weightlifter in the world. He’s one of two male athletes to possess world records in multiple Senior weight classes (Abdullah owns the clean & jerk record of 209 kilograms in the Men’s 81-kilo division) alongside Chinese weightlifter Li Dayin.
Moreover, since his sneaky bronze-medal performance in Tokyo, Abdullah has finished in 1st or 2nd place at every single International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) event he’s attended across multiple different weight classes:
- 1st place: 6 competitions since 2021
- 2nd place: 5 competitions since 2021
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He also sits comfortably atop the IWF’s qualification ranking leaderboards, the primary means by which countries will determine which athletes they send to Paris this summer. Abdullah’s ever-increasing strength poses a challenge for one Shi Zhiyong of China, a two-time (2016, 2020) Olympic Champion. Prior to Dec. 2023, Zhiyong went undefeated in international weightlifting events for almost 12 years.
He finished 2nd at the IWF Grand Prix II to Latvia’s Ritvars Suharevs, while Abdullah opted not to cut weight and instead compete in the Men’s 81s. Early into the qualification period for Paris, Zhiyong was the presumed favorite to bag his third consecutive Olympic gold. But with Abdullah seeming unstoppable on the lifting platform, it looks like Indonesia’s game to lose.
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Featured Image courtesy of Weightlifting House
