Lightweight (≤69 kilograms), Men

There was no definite favorite in this class. The 2004 Olympic featherweight gold medalist, Shi Zhiyong, snatched 152.0 kg but injured himself during the clean & jerk and did not finish. The Athinai silver medalist, Korean Lee Bae-Yeong, had lifted 155.0 kg in the snatch but tore a calf muscle in the clean & jerk and also did not finish. The 2007 World Champion and defending gold medalist was China’s Zhang Guozheng, but he was beaten out for a spot on the Chinese team by Liao Hui. Liao had the best lifts in both snatch and clean & jerk to win the gold medal. His margin was 10 kg over France’s Vencelas Dabaya and Armenia’s World Junior Champion Tigran G. Martirosyan. Dabaya and Martirosyan tied at 338.0 kg, with silver going to Dabaya on lower bodyweight.

That was how the event and the results seemed to have ended. In 2015, however, the IOC began re-testing samples from the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics, using newer, more advanced testing techniques, in an effort to find those who had used performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), but in whom it could not be detected at the time of those Olympics. This was one of the many events affected.

In August 2016 Armenian Tigran G. Martirosyan had a positive re-test for turinabol (dehydrochloromethyltestosterone) and stanozolol, and was disqualified, losing his bronze medal, which was re-assigned to Cuban lifter Yordanis Borrero.